Summer in The County Ch. 01

This story is part of an ongoing series. The chronological order of my stories is now 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 1 - Prologue

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" shouted the lovely redheaded reporterette at 7:00am, Monday, July 10th, from in front of City Hall. "Channel Two News has learned that several groups, led by State Senator Maxine Watts of the City, are calling for the investigation of the assassination of superstar singer Jasmine Nix to be re-opened!"

Bettina went on: "The Coroner's Inquest found that Ms. Nix was shot from the window of a hotel room occupied by an associate of 'Big Ice', who went by the name 'Jackson'. Mr. Jackson was himself shot to death by security forces, who found him holding a rifle. Mr. Big Ice was himself assassinated by persons believed to be associates of Ms. Nix."

"The groups are asking that the case be re-examined." said Bettina. "They cite unusual drug readings in Mr. Jackson's bloodstream when he was shot. Sources tell Channel Two News that the FBI's investigation found anomalies at the crime scene, but those were not added to the FBI's final report, which came out late Friday afternoon during the so-called 'document dump' period."

"In other news," said Bettina, "The group Citizens for Police Accountability have filed Open Records Act requests on all documents relating to the SBI's new SIS unit, including all Police and personal emails and texts of Commander Donald Troy, who is overseeing the new SIS unit in his role as an SBI Inspector. Commander Troy issued a statement saying that the SBI's Records Office will handle any official SBI documents, the Town & County Police Department must be contacted to handle official TCPD business items... but he will not release nor allow to be released any personal emails or texts without a warrant, showing probable cause that a crime was committed. Commander Troy's personal lawyers, from the Madison & Ives Law Firm, have issued a statement saying they will not comply with any demand for Commander Troy's personal emails and texts unless, and I quote, 'the letter of the Law is scrupulously followed in every particular and detail', close quote."

Bettina was not finished: "And in other news, Lieutenant Governor Graham Collins and State House Ways & Means Chairman Wilson Hammonds, both Republicans, issued a joint statement over the weekend condemning Republican Governor Val Jared for what they called an 'insensitive' speech given by the Governor on July 4th. In that speech, Republican Governor Jared praised the Founding Fathers, and especially the 3d U.S. President, Thomas Jefferson, in their writing of the Declaration of Independence. Collins and Hammonds said that the speech was 'tone deaf' to the complaints of Social Justice groups, which cite President Jefferson having been a slave owner."

Bettina: "As you know, our County is named after President Jefferson, and Social Justice groups plan to ask the Town & County Council to rename the County to reflect Social Diversity. However, Mayor Larry P. Vaughan has said that counties can be renamed only by Acts of the State Legislature and the Governor's signature..."

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

"Sure is quiet in here today." I said as I drank coffee in MCD.

"I hope that's not a complaint." replied Cindy Ross as she stood next to me and sipped her coffee."

"No, not at all." I said. "But I do like the morning hustle and bustle of the coffee klatch."

"Well," Cindy Ross said, standing next to me and sipping her own coffee, "Detective Warner is at Police Academy Advanced Course, Detective Washington is at Police Academy Detective School, all of Vice is excused until 10:00am because they were on a stakeout last night until 4:00am, and Detective Davis worked out with me in the boxing ring this morning... he's licking his wounds and showering up right now."

"How'd he do in the ring?" I asked.

"Not bad... for a rank beginner with nothing more than woefully inadequate Police Academy tactics." said Cindy. "But he learns quickly. And that reminds me: Captain Croyle submitted the schedule the Chief wanted, and on Thursday, as he asked. But Commander Harlow objected to it."

"Yes, I saw her schedule and had her send it on to the Chief." I asked. "But why did Harlow object? Because her Admin people were on the list?"

"No." Cindy said. "And just so you know, my own confidential sources tell me the Admin and Records people would really love some basic tactical training, especially the ones that want to get out of Admin and become Patrol Officers or Detectives. Commander Harlow is simply objecting to what she calls the strain on resources."

"Let's go to my office." I said. As we refilled our mugs and were leaving, I said "Parker, we're going to try to get you into Detective School right after Thanksgiving, unless you are going to travel to visit family in that time."

"No sir, I have no plans." said Parker. "Thank you, sir."

Part 2 - Meetings

"O-kayyyyy, Mr. Crowbar," said Chief Sean Moynahan as I sat in his office at 9:00am, "the County Attorney's legal beagles have joined with your lawyers in pushing back on the ORA requests for your private emails and texts. But do make sure to keep those really separate."

"I'm going to put out an announcement to everyone about that." I said. "Maybe a meeting at afternoon shift change, then again tomorrow morning to third shift and first shift folks that didn't make the first one."

"Good." said Moynahan. "Okay, our second order of business: the schedule presented to me for some increased training. Have you heard of Deputy Chief Harlow's objections?"

"Yes sir." I said. "She's objecting to the overtime pay some of them will get. She also objects to anyone in any desk job getting the training at all."

"So break it down for me." said the Chief. "What kind of num-berrrrrs are we talking about, here?"

"Sir, we have about 180 Uniformed Patrol Officers and 40 more in other jobs, such as Admin and Detectives. That's total." I said. "So the 180 over three shifts would be about 60 apiece, but it's really 70-70-40, give or take. And then those are split in two for the Precincts, leaving 35 per shift on 1st and 2nd shifts, and 20 per shift at night. That's not a lot for our relatively high population zone, especially with the School across the street."

"Yes, we are short handed." said the Chief.

"It's fine in normal, quiet times," I said, "but when there are football games or a serious incident develops, we've got problems. So we have overlapping shifts, 12-hour shift schedules, and what we call 'double shifts': an Officer on First Shift will work all of his shift and all of Second Shift; a Second Shift Officer will work 2nd and 3d shifts; and so on. That's a sixteen hour day; and yes, they do get overtime. If it's a weekend or holiday, that overtime can be double time."

"Yes, the Council pounds me on the Budget for all this reggggulurly." said the Chief. "So the issue is that Captain Croyle wants the training to be done after the shift is over, and they stay over for it?"

"Either that, sir," I said, "or during their own shift, but then we have to have someone filling in for their normal duties."

"Let me ask this quest-yunnnnnnn." said the Chief. "Do you really think we need this level of training?"

"Chief," I said, looking the man squarely in the eye, "we need riot control training, for sure. We probably don't need every Patrol Officer going through Aikido forms, but I do believe there will come a day when we are going to need every available Officer to respond to riots and violence. Did you see the news this morning?"

"Yes, I did." said Moynahan. "You think that stuff about the County's name is going to be a problem?"

"I think they're going to make it one." I said. "Here, Madison County, Washington County; hell, they're even attacking Abraham Lincoln in some places. It's crazy... but the threat of violence is very real, and I'm not going to sit by idly on it."

"Nooooo, I think the State is very clear on where you stand and what you might do, Mr. Crowbar." said the Chief. "Your reputation precedes you as well as follows you."

He then took off his badge and put it on the desk. "Put yours on the desk... and let's make sure this conversation cannot be over-herrrrrrrd." I put my badge on the desk by the Chief's, and turned on the bug-killer.

"As you know," the Chief said, "Commander Harlow made that comment the other day saying you should have nothing to do with the Governor. First, I told her that I'd allowed her to speak freely and would not reprimand her for it, but if she ever said that again in any way, speaking freely or not, she would be written up and possibly suspended. Our personal political activities and persuasions are each individual's business, provided he or she does not mix it with a Police Uniform, if you get my drift."

"Yes sir." I said.

"Second," said the Chief, "I talked to Chief Griswold about it, in confidence. He told me he told you he thinks Ms. Harlow might be angling for a State job, possibly with the SBI. I have contacted some people I know and done other research, and I am finding that this is unlikely to be the case. Whatever Ms. Harlow is doing, I don't think she's angling for another job."

When I didn't reply, the Chief said "What do you think, Mr. Crowbar?"

"I think Chief Griswold may be partially correct, sir." I said. "He usually is about these things. And it is very early days yet for her to be angling for any SBI or State job, so that is why you might not be getting anything... yet. But when we look at some of her past comments and actions, then look at how she is inexplicably trying to stop me from making this Police Force more ready to meet threats... almost like Brownlee would do, just to oppose me... then I would suggest, off the record of course, that she is putting her politics ahead of sound Police judgement."

The Chief nodded. "That's Iron Crowbar thinking, there." He picked up his badge, and I followed suit. "Okay, my last item: was it really wise to send two Detectives to schools at the same time?"

"Well, sir," I said, "in my experience since I've been here, July is the quietest time of year. The University is not in full session, local schools are out, we're at low ebb population-wise and activity-wise. We sent Teresa and Joanne to schools at the same time last year, and if memory serves me correctly, the FBI paid for over 80% of my time in July when we were wrapping up Pastor Westboro's Syndicate."

"Yes. And let's hope it stays quiet." said the Chief...

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

The Angels meeting followed my meeting with the Chief.

"How are you feeling, Teresa?" I asked.

"Good." Teresa said. "Your wife said that if this were the NFL, I'd be back out of concussion protocol already, and my scrapes on various parts of me are healing up well."

"Good." I said. "By the way, no Purple Orders for that. In fact, we might be on track for an August 1st without any Purple Orders being awarded, which would make me most very happy."

"Me too, sir." said Cindy. Teresa nodded vigorously in agreement.

"Okay..." I said. "What I need to know now is not facts but rumors and innuendo. What's going on and what's being whispered around the Police Force?"

"Sir," said Cindy, "you know that Detective Jerome Davis goes over to 2d Precinct every so often and has a cup of coffee with Lt. Carswell and sometimes even Precinct Captain Thompson. We all know it's a backchannel for some off-the-cuff discussion."

"Yes, and that's good." I said.

Cindy continued: "Jerome says that PCpt. Thompson knows that if there's any issues with blacks demonstrating or rioting, especially in the southern areas, he's going to be the face of the TCPD, he'll be the one on television and the spokesman, at least at first. Jerome says Thompson even keeps an extra, pressed uniform in his office in case something breaks out."

I nodded, and Cindy went on: "Well, PCpt. Thompson and Lt. Carswell both have been hearing some stuff about demonstrations being orchestrated. And by that I mean planned in advanced, made to look spontaneous but in reality they won't be. Nothing new there. But what's new... is that you are the target, Commander."

"Me!? How?" I asked. "Assassination attempt?"

"Jerome said that Thompson and Carswell didn't have details," said Cindy, "so I had the Vice people check with sources. What they're getting from the underground grapevine is that someone wants you removed from the TCPD, preferrably by being disgraced, which would demoralize the Police Force."

"And it would do worse than that." said Teresa. "Everyone knows that if you're fucked with, Cindy and I will follow you out the door, and it could lead to a cascading effect... maybe even a strike by the Police Force."

I whispered to myself "... and if y'all are gone, Harlow could leverage that to be made Police Commander..." I went into a reverie.

It was several minutes before I came out of it. Cindy and Teresa were still waiting, but were on their Police iPads, going through emails.

"One more thing, sir." said Cindy. "There is some word that Harlow has been meeting with Briscoe and Briggs at the Cop Bar fairly regularly, and they never did that before."

"All right," I said, "we'll worry about that later. Talk to me about the MCD and Vice Lieutenant spots."

"Applications have been trickling in," said Cindy, "some from inside, but mostly from around the State. Purvis and Grubby Paul both applied for the Vice slot. Sergeant DeLong applied for either one. Lt. Paul Price from Nextdoor County filed the paperwork, and Molly sent a glowing recommendation for him. Detectives Ruger and Wesson from Midtown applied, and Chief Frank Soltis gave them both a good recommendation. Sapper Warren of the City Police applied, but he called me and said he wanted to bring Ventura with him in a package deal. Also from the City Police are Detectives E.J. Jefferson, Arthur Wilshire, and Tony Long. Then there's Lt. Mills of the SBI, and Agent Carter Fischer of the SBI also applied for the MCD position. Gayle Tunnin of I.A. applied for the MCD slot, as well. And I think to just make a statement, Tanya Perlman applied to come off retirement and be reinstated with us."

"And I'd hire Tanya in a New York minute if I could get away with it." I replied. "Anyway, I think we all know that it's the Vice slot being filled, unless Sherlock Holmes himself applies to be MCD Lieutenant. And so far I'm not hearing a single name that I like. Well, I like Jefferson and Sapper Warren."

"But the gist of it," I continued, "is that I can tell you that Mills is out; he's a dirty SBI Agent and on his way out of there, too. I might hire Fischer as a Vice Detective, but not as the Lieutenant of the group. Ruger and Wesson are good, but are young, and I don't want to raid good people away from Chief Soltis; he needs those guys far more than we do. Tunnin is I.A., that creates issues."

"What about Price?" Cindy asked.

"You got to observe him, most lately with that chef competition case." I replied. "What was your evaluation of him?"

"You know," Cindy said, "I don't think he's all that bad. I know you looked at his past cases, and so did I, and he's done some good work in the past. I think if we get him properly coached up in the 'Crowbar' way of thinking, he might be all right."

"True." I said. "Except he's an MCD kind of guy, and he ain't Sherlock Holmes."

"Sir," said Teresa, "you are just not in a rush to hire anyone, are you?"

I smiled. "No, I'm not, which bespeaks of my confidence in who I have running the place now. But also... I'd rather give someone from inside the TCPD a shot at it, especially one of the Vice Detectives."

"I've got one suggestion. But you are going to hate it, sir." Teresa said, and I could see twinkling in her eyes; she was up to something.

"Okay, hit me with it." I said, springing the trap upon myself, as usual. "And 'Steven Ikea' is a 'wrong answer'."

Teresa gave what was for her a smile. "Oh hell no, not that slug. I am thinking of... Mary Mahoney Milton." The room went into twenty seconds of utter silence, and not a feature of my face moved.

Finally, I said "You know, I'm being selfish. I was about to say 'No way in hell! How can I give up her data expertise?'. But I think you're right, Teresa... she knows the Punk world, she knows the underground, and she can lead others. We can put her in as a Supervisor, then start looking to groom someone to succeed her over time."

Cindy looked at Teresa and said "Wow. I think the correct words are: that is Iron Crowbar thinking, there." Then she grinned and said "Maybe I need to hit you over the head and give you concussions more often."

I laughed, but Teresa just turned and looked at Cindy, then said: "Maybe you've forgotten who took your hardbody ass down in the ring last month." By now I was laughing so hard I could not stop.

"Damn! I love you two." I said, still unable to recover...

Part 3 - Feeling The Burn

An hour later, Cindy came back into my office. "I think you need to see this." she said. She attached her computer to the hookup to my television monitor.

"This came on at 10:00 this morning, and was DVR'd by Public Relations." Cindy said. It was one of those all-women's talk shows, and it was called 'Point Taken'. There were five women, four of them being very Left-wing; and one, the smallest, most slender woman, a Grassroots Conservative. The Conservative girl was named Lisa Fillmore. The most strident Leftwing woman was overweight, and mean-spirited; her name was Donna Roselle.

The show appeared on KSB in the City, and was syndicated to many parts of the Nation. The guest today was State Senator Maxine Watts. Maxine was the cousin of our Judge Rodney K. Watts. She was black, middle-aged going on elderly, and she wore a huge wig of brown-black hair. The biggest problem with her full lips was that they moved way too often.

"What I am telling you," Senator Watts said, "is that the assassination of Jasmine Nix was a C.I.A. operation. A C.I.A. sniper shot Ms. Nix, and set it up to look like one of Big Ice's most trusted men did it."

"Why do you think this?" asked Lisa Fillmore. "The FBI investigated it, Commander Troy examined their work. All the security men said that Jackson swung the rifle over at them..."

"The FBI is covering up for their CIA counterparts." said Maxine. "The FBI ignored the Coroner's Report, which said there were drugs in Mr. Jackson's system... drugs that would knock a man out, then drugs that would revive him. And the FBI report omitted any finding of the circle of glass that was cut out of the window. It wasn't on Mr. Jackson's body, it was not found in the hotel room, and it wasn't on the ground outside."

"Why would the CIA do something like this?" asked Lisa. Maxine Watts looked at Lisa as if Lisa were a turd on the floor.

"Of course because they wanted to get blacks to start shooting at each other, instead of concentrating on their real oppressors, the white race." Watts replied authoritatively.

"So are you proposing a new investigation?" asked Roselle. "Who could we possibly get to do an honest job?"

"We are proposing a re-opening of the case." said Maxine Watts. "I believe there needs to be investigations by a State Legislature committee, by the U.S. Congress's Black Caucus, and definitely by the SBI, once Jack Lewis is restored as its Director."