Smoke on the Water Ch. 01

Sheriff Griswold said "Crowbar, Amber really pushed that 'public safety' narrative over the 2-man vs. 4-man HAZMAT response. Anything to that? And did you find out more about why they sent the larger team?"

"Not yet, sir." I said. "It's not like it's a crime, so I told Jerome Davis to have some people ask around, and that it was anything but a priority."

"Eight hundred pound elephant in the room." Teresa said. "What's going to happen in the D.A.'s Office? Is Miriam really going to give Savannah the MCD portfolio?"

"Unless the Chief or Sheriff can convince Miriam otherwise." I said. "Miriam considers it to be a holy jihad against me, so I'll never convince her... at least until Savannah fucks up a few cases."

"Or puts criminals out on the street without bail." said the Chief. "Or refuses to prosecute them." I was stunned... not at the insinuations, but that it was the Chief making them. I'd expected for the Sheriff to say that out loud.

Teresa said "I'd think Savannah would want the Vice portfolio, especially the drug offenses, if that's what she wants to do concerning the growing political football that is (air quotes) 'bail reform'."

"What's Paulina going to do?" Tanya asked.

"Her job." I replied. "And she'll do it very well. If you want to see a true 'War on Drugs'... just put Paulina on the drug cases."

Sheriff Griswold growled: "Was that truthful reporting, or just Press-created bullshit about Laura needing to be canceled because she doesn't support Carmela's batshit-crazy agenda?"

"And Stephanie Steele, too." I said. "From what I understand, a student group that was secretly backed by Carmela went around demanding every professor on campus sign a document supporting Carmela's climate change bullshit. Laura and Stephanie refused to sign it... as did a full two-thirds of the Faculty, even some Leftist ones that may think Climate Change is real but know that Carmela is off the deep end and very dangerous."

Me: "Laura may or may not share my very strong views that Climate Change is a total fraud. But she does fully agree with me that Climate Change is being used by politicians purely for the purpose of the redistribution of wealth from the Producers to the Parasites."

"Strong letter to follow." growled the Sheriff. "Okay, then, let's get back to work..."

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

7:30am, Tuesday, November 10th. MCD Lieutenant Jerome Davis came to my office and I had him sit down.

"Sir," he said, "I had Roark Coleman and George Newman follow up on the HAZMAT vehicle. I don't think Coleman was happy with the assignment, but he went about it. Newman followed up more vigorously." I nodded.

"What they found," said Jerome, "was that our guys's call went to the 9-1-1 Dispatch Center. That's because it's an inter-agency request. Technically our calls for ambulances or fire trucks also go through that, but our Officers have some backdoor direct contacts, especially with the new EMT service. But the call for the HAZMAT level one response went through the Dispatch Center."

"And it was the level one, or 2-man response?"

"Yes sir." said Davis. "Thanks to Myron Milton, we have the tape of the radio transmission and the phone call into the Center. Here's the first rub: someone had tried to erase those transmissions, but didn't realize they're backed up automatically after that problem you had years ago with the duty log transmissions." (Author's note: 'Case of the Murdered Chessplayer', Ch. 02-03.)

"My God, I'd forgotten all about that." I said, feeling considerably surprised. "That was a long, long time ago. So what happened next?"

Jerome said "Newman finally got someone to tell us that a particular dispatcher, named Walter Walton, took over that call-in. He's the one that called for the full four-man HAZMAT unit. They were unable to talk to Walton because he'd gone home for the day. Their calls to his cellphone went unanswered, but we can't infer anything from that because calls from Police cellphones and landlines say 'Blocked' on the recipients cellphone, and they may think it's a telemarketer or a trick call."

"Yeah, I get that." I said. "Okay, have Coleman and Newman follow up. If they can't find Walter Walton, put out an APB for him... no, I'm not kidding about that. The farther we go down this rabbit hole, the more I smell the raw sewage of something not quite right going on..."

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

No sooner had Jerome left my office than Detective Joan Laurer bounded in, followed by Captain Claire Michaels. I had them sit down.

"Eureka, sir!" Joan said. "Carole was all over it. Sims found out the name of the group visiting the school this morning: Ancestor Discovery, LLC. They are a startup technology company with an app that supposedly can find a person's genealogy from basic data. Their website says that a DNA-analysis application is coming soon. They're based in the City, but there is no phone number to their so-called headquarters, which may be no more than a P.O. Box."

Joan: "I called some of the victims that reported fraud or identity issues in Lexington and here. Every one of them had children in elementary school, and they remembered their children's school being visited by a group selling the Ancestor Discovery software."

"Did they buy the software?" I asked.

"Four of them did, but twelve did not." said Joan. "But from what I understand, the children would turn in their filled-out forms, and some were selected for demos of the software. The software was good for finding grandparents and some extended family, but the information was more than enough to be able to steal identities and commit credit card fraud."

"This is excellent work, Joan." I said. "Claire, I am about to egregiously go over your head and make some assignments. Joan, assemble a team. A couple of Detectives to be at the school with you. And four Uniformed Officers. They can act like they're School Security, and blend in, and will be there if needed to support making an arrest or two. One or two of them can frisk the potential perps for weapons, calling it a 'routine security search'."

"Do we have warrants to arrest them?" asked Claire.

"We will." I replied. "Joan, get with Inspector Brittany Maxwell of the SBI. She'll probably tell you to get with SBI Agent James Tarleton, who lives in this area. Britt can get Statewide arrest warrants, so that we don't immediately tip off people here about this. We need for these people to show up at the school...

*KNOCK!* *KNOCK!* *KNOCK!* *KNOCK!*

*Whirrrrrrrrrrr*

The door opened to reveal Commander Tanya Muscone. "Sorry to interrupt, sir, but Jack called and said he and Dwight Stevens need to meet with you and the Chief at 9:00am. He says it's very important, and for Dwight it's urgent."

"Okay." I said. After Tanya withdrew to her office, I said "Well, I wanted to be there, but I think I'll have to meet with the Feds. Claire, you may need to be with me in that meeting. Joan, be prepared to proceed without me. And if you want to have a bit of dramatic fun, here's what else you can do..."

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

9:00am, Tuesday, November 10th. The Chief, myself, Lt. Commander Croyle, and Captain Claire Michaels were sitting in the Main Conference Room when the Chief's lovely assistant Cassie showed in the Federal Agents: FBI Special Agent in Charge Jack Muscone, DEA Supervisory Special Agent Dwight Stevens, and DEA Special Agent Kevin Pitts.

"Would you gentlemen care for some coffee?" the Chief asked. The Federal Agents politely declined, so the Chief said "Thank you, Cassie." and Cassie closed the door and left as the Agents sat down on the near side of the table, to the Chief's right and across from me and Teresa, who was to my left. Claire was to Teresa's left, and I introduced her to them, and Jack returned the favor introducing the DEA Agents to her.

"Sooooo," drawled the Chief, "what can we do for yoooooo?"

Dwight Stevens spoke up, saying "We understand that a metal capsule and it's contents were recovered from the dead woman you found yesterday morning. We would like for you to turn over that capsule and its contents to us."

"Not to arrr-guuuuue," said the Chief, "but why does the DEA want anything to do with a local murrr-derrrr?"

"She died with fentanyl on her person." Stevens said. "We think there may be a connection with a drug case we've been working on."

"How do yoooo feel about that, Mis-ter Crowbarrrrr?" the Chief asked me.

I looked over at Dwight and said "I'd be happy to turn over the capsule and it's contents... but you need to answer one question first: who is she?"

"What are you talking about?" asked Dwight Stevens.

"I've given you plenty of examples that prove I'm not the Agency of the Weak-Minded that you are insultingly calling me now. So one more time... who is the dead girl? And was she a Confidential Informant for the DEA, or an actual DEA Agent?..."

To be continued.