The Babymaker Ch. 01

"Oooo-WEEEE!" I said enthusiastically as my Angels and the Sheriff watched in my office. "Sheriff got serious political game!"

"Iron Crowbar got serious asskissing skills." growled Griswold in friendly retaliatory response. My Angles were laughing at our repartée.

"Sheriff," said Cindy, "aren't you worried the Stenson Campaign will sue you?"

"They'd be fools to." replied the Sheriff. "If they do, I really can countersue and demand a cognitive test. And it keeps the story in the public eye... at least those eyes watching the Fox channels. KXTC and the SNN Networks won't touch it."

"Do they really think they can win, the way they are going?" Tanya said. "That line about hiding in his basement is accurate, and is hurting Stenson."

"They must really be thinking that Sharon Marshall will be rejected by the Voters as being a Val Jared clone." Cindy said. "And they may be right. Sorry, Sheriff, but Jared is despised."

"Not nearly as much as you think, young whippersnapper." the Sheriff replied. "And Sharon Marshall has a really strong following with Conservatives, and with the 'Independents'... the ones that Crowbar correctly said used to be called 'Reagan Democrats'. Marshall is well ahead in our internal polling."

Cindy said "No disrespect to you, Sheriff, but I don't agree. And I've heard some poll numbers that I believe, and show that Marshall is barely ahead at all. She could easily lose."

I said "There is only one way Sharon Marshall can lose. And that's if there is Election fraud so rampant that it will be obvious to the world."

"I've got a question." Tanya said with a gleam in her eye. "Is Priya part of the Fox Eight morning newscasts now?" For some strange reason, all eyes went to the Green Crowbar.

Cindy said "Priya told me that the KFXU Brass has been talking with her about appearing on the Fox University Sunrise show more often, and having more air time when she's in the field, like when she's in Midtown during the session of the State Legislature in the Winter. But I can't really say more on it."

I said "I might have a bit of a source on this also, for a rare change. Alison McFarland at the Town & County Examiner told me that there has been rising tension behind the scenes between Meredith Peller and Catrina Pierce, and between Peller and others there. Catrina is pretty Conservative, while Meredith is a moderate Leftist, but definitely Leftist. They've even sparred on-air at times on some issues, and they're not leaving the bad blood behind when the cameras are turned off."

I continued: "Meredith has objected to the negative coverage of Hoyt Stenson as well as the criminal allegations against his son Hunter Stenson, and on a couple of occasions outright refused to report on them. So if you've watched the newscasts, like the one this morning, you'll see that Catrina does the negative reporting on the Stensons and positive coverage of Republicans, while Meredith gives neutral or positive reports about the Democrats."

I finished up: "Soooo, the KFXU Brass is bringing in Priya more and more to show Meredith that she's not inexpendable. She'll either toe the network line, or she'll be replaced." Cindy nodded vigorously in agreement..

Part 3 - Stags And Vixens

10:00am, Monday, September 28th. Dr. Laura Fredricson's graduate students took their seats in the classroom on the same floor as her office in the Psychology Building, but on the other side of the hallway. There were tables in a large square configuration that the group sat around, with Laura sitting with them at the center of one of the tables.

"Okay, let's get started." Laura said. "Does anyone have any questions from last week's class?"

"I do, ma'am." said Karyn, an extremely attractive brunette with flowing brown-black hair, doe eyes and full lips, and a saucy hourglass body. "I'm not quite sure of the difference between a 'cuckold' and a 'stag'." There were murmurs of agreement.

Laura said "Okay, let me back up just a bit. First, the technical and most widely understood definition of a 'cuckold' is 'the husband of an adulteress', and is usually applied derisively. The verb form, 'to cuckold', is the wife and/or the other man acting to have sex. The term comes from the same Old English term for the coo-coo bird, which lays its eggs in other birds's nests. So a man who mates with and potentially impregnates another man's wife, is cuckolding the husband."

Laura: "In our studies of alternative relationships to the standard and most common monogamous man-woman relationship, some terminology developed. Decades ago... some would say in my heyday... the term 'swingers' was used to denote persons who engaged in extramarital or group sex. More recently, the term 'hotwife' has been used to denote the wife that has sex with men other than her husband. The man she engages in sex with is termed the 'bull'."

|Laura: "And that's where we get to the 'Stag & Vixen' relationship. As I said before, the term 'cuckold' is often used derisively. If the wife is outright cheating on the unsuspecting husband, and everyone but him knew what was going on, they'd call him a cuckold. But what about a husband that willingly shares his wife with other men?"

"It's not cheating if her husband approves, is it?" asked Peter, a white guy with a fit body and very black hair and a friendly, outgoing face. He was somewhat the class comedian, and was grinning as everyone chuckled at that latest joke.

"So they say." said Laura. "And the point is a good one. Is a husband who knows about and permits his wife to have extramarital sex a cuckold? And that's where the term 'stag' came in. A stag is a male deer, often a younger one. In humans, a male who goes to a party without a date (air quotes) 'goes stag', And male-only parties, such as a bachelor parties, were called a 'stag parties'... back in my day."

Laura: "In deer herds, the alpha-male gets to mate with the does and will force other stags to back off if they try to mount his does. And the other stags have to just stand there and watch as the alpha-male mates with the does. That alpha-male, especially in human sexual encounters, has become known as the 'bull'."

Laura: "So in our discussion of human relationships, the Stag allows the Bull to mate with his hotwife... and in this particular relationship, she is called the 'Vixen'. Often the Stag will 'reclaim' his Vixen after she returns to him or after the Bull has left."

"So the Stag is a cuckold." said Tamara, a wiry girl with stringy brown hair and big glasses that made her look nerdier than she really was. She had an annoyingly nasally voice.

"Technically, yes." Laura said. "But in these relationships, the word 'cuckold' has come to be more specific. In the Stag-Vixen relationship, the husband may not be present as his Vixen copulates with her Bull. Or he may be present and simply watches his Vixen mate with her Bull. He may participate, but often doesn't. And he's not into the humiliation aspects."

Laura: "The Cuckold, however, may be into the humiliation of his wife being taken by another man. He may get aroused on the jealousy itself... the psychology term for that is 'zelophilia'... or he may not enjoy it at all. Also, in the Stag-Vixen relationship, the Bull rarely goes about humiliating the Stag... if he does, either the Stag or the Vixen, or both, might end the relationship right there. But the Bull as well as the Hotwife may humiliate the Cuckold, especially if the Cuckold wants that."

Laura: "And last are the situations where the Cuckold either wants to or has sex with the Bull, whether forced or consentual. The Cuckold is often bisexual or has latent homosexual leanings. The Stag usually doesn't."

Karyn asked "So the difference is the humiliation aspect of it?"

Laura replied "That's some of it. But I like to look at the two situations as almost totally different relationships between the husband and the wife."

"What about when the husband also cheats... er, has sex outside the marriage?" asked Jill, a tall, cute girl with frilly light brown hair.

Laura said "I'm glad you asked! Because that segues right into today's discussion, on Polyamory relationships....

Part 4 - Death and Anger

12:00 high noon, Monday, September 28th. Carl called his wife Wanda, who was a partner in the Town Fitness Centers operation. "Hey baby," he said into his cellphone, "I'm done, I'm on my way back... yeah, I dropped my load in her... yeah, she came hard several times; that helps, doesn't it?... okay, I'm on the Bypass, I should be at the gym in 20 minutes or so... love you, too. Bye..."

After disconnecting, the young stud put the cellphone in the cupholder between the front seats of his silver Toyota Corolla. As he neared the northwest corner of Town, where the Bypass met with North Street, he only saw the merest flash in his driver-side door mirror.

*CRUNCH!*

His head jerked left and he saw that a black muscle car with heavily tinted windows had smashed into his car just forward of the door hinge. As he instinctively hit the brakes, he realized that the car was pushing him off the road!

"What the hell, dude?" he shouted as he fought to resist, but the other car was too much. There was a sloping embankment to the right, and he realized that he was going over the edge of it at an angle!

He fought to turn the tires to the right, into the direction of his slide, and was able to prevent the car from flipping over. As the car hit something and came to a sudden stop, the airbag deployed, slamming him in the chest and lower face. The blow as well as the overall accident left him stunned for a second.

As he gathered his wits, he looked out the window to see someone in all black running down the embankment. As the man neared, Carl saw with horror that the man had a gun in his hand. "What the fuck!------" Carl started yelling.

*FWUP!* spoke the pistol, the silencer at the end of the barrel muffling almost all of the sound. The driver door window shattered. The man put the business end of the pistol almost to Carl's head and pulled the trigger...

The masked man reached through the shattered window and unlocked all the doors. He opened the left-side rear door and disappeared inside the car for a moment, then came back out with Carl's cellphone. He ran back up to the embankment and got into the black car, just as other cars were stopping and pulling up, likely to see if they could render aid in any way...

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

I drove north on the Bypass in my Police SUV, with Teresa riding shotgun. As we neared the congregation of blue lights, mixed with some red and white lights, I noticed that Police had closed off the right lane, forcing everyone into the left lane.

"Very efficient." I told Teresa. "Good plan, and good training. Well done, Commander Croyle."

"Team effort, sir." Teresa said.

We stopped on the side of the road, got out, and walked up to the scene. Patrolman Culver allowed us through the perimeter barricade. I noticed Firefighters putting away their equipment. "It never caught fire, Commander." one of them said to me.

"I'm glad you were here anyway." I replied. "Good job." We went on until we were at the edge of the embankment. I saw the torn up turf that showed where the car had gone off the edge, and the tracks of shredded, dug up grass that led to the car. I also saw a lot of other tracks, of Police Officers and Firefighters that had walked along that same path to get to the car.

"Hendricks was the first on the scene, and said the guy was still alive, so we got him out." said Sr. Patrolman Johnson. "The paramedics are rushing him to University Hospital, but it didn't look good to me. He was shot in the side of the head, just in front of the ear. It looked like a small caliber bullet, and the wound was not bleeding much at all."

"Where's Hendricks now?" I asked.

"I think Sergeant Clarke sent him up to do traffic control, sir." said Johnson.

"Okay, thanks." I said. "So is Sergeant Clarke in charge here?"

"Right here, sir." said Sergeant Clarke, coming up to us.

"Hello, Sergeant. Do you know who called it in?" I asked.

"All I know is that 9-1-1 was called, and dispatched the ambulance." said Sergeant Clarke. "Maybe one of the people who stopped to help when they saw the accident called it in. We're getting their statements now."

"We'll need them." I said. "Just look at this terrain, Sergeant. It could not be more walked over if I'd brought a herd of cattle through here."

"Yes sir." said Sergeant Clarke. "And this isn't meant to be excuse-making, sir, but a lot of that was Fire Department personnel."

"Sir," said a Firefighter Captain that I did not know as he came up to us. "We had to get to the car to put out any fires that might've started up, and the Paramedics had to get the guy out, since he was still alive."

"I get that, Captain, I truly do." I said. "Commander Croyle, we need to have much, much more thorough training in securing crime scenes like this. And I'll have a word with the Sheriff to arrange for us to instruct the Fire Department on their role in helping us secure these scenes."

"Yes sir." Teresa said, making notes in her notebook.

"We're about to clear out, Commander." said the Fire Captain. "Is there anything you need before we go?"

"Just notify your Chief that I would appreciate it if any Firefighter that was up close to the car could either be interviewed by my people or make a written statement of what they saw." The Captain promised to put out the word, and I dismissed him.

"Sir," said Senior Patrol Officer Penny Scott of our Intel Branch, in uniform, "the guy's wallet and ID were in a pocket of his clothes, and I ran the car tags. His name is Carl Ryder. He works at Commander Ross's gym, Town Fitness Centers."

"Yes, yes he does. I said. "Sergeant Clarke, put out the word that nobody is to put out the victim's name on Police radio. In fact..." I took out my radio and hit the 'Break' button, then said "Break! Break! Break! This is Commander Troy. Absolutely no one is to put out the name of the Bypass car crash victim over Police radio. Stop all radio communications; use cellphones to communicate about this incident from this moment forward."

I said "Sergeant Clarke, make sure that happens. Ms. Scott, the Press and their drones are not here yet, but they soon will be. Cover up that car tag. Go do that right now." Penny Scott scurried off.

"Come on, Commander Croyle." I said. "We need to get to the Hospital, pronto!..."

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

My blue lightbar was blazing and my siren wailing as we sped towards University Hospital. I had Teresa call Cindy on her cellphone and apprise the Green Crowbar of what was going on. After disconnecting, Teresa said "Cindy's going to go to the gym and get Wanda and take her to the Hospital. And I guess you're trying to keep the Press from identifying him so that they don't start hounding Wanda about it?"

"That's some of it." I said. "I also want to get a headstart on finding out who shot Carl. But with him being an employee of Cindy's gym, and his wife being Cindy's business partner, you know that Bettina would just love to blab that out all over the place, which will hurt our pursuit of the criminals."

"Yes sir." Teresa said, then she said: "Sir, I apologize for the deplorable condition of that crime scene. I have utterly failed in my duty to properly train your Officers, and to make sure proper procedures were implemented."

"I accept your apologies." I said. "Just make sure it doesn't happen again. And part of the re-training should be that We the Police have guns; the Fire Department does not. By that I mean that I can understand the Paramedics getting to the guy as fast as they could, and getting him out of there. But the Police do not have to let the Fire Department run roughshod over a crime scene like that, and they should take whatever steps are necessary to maintain the integrity of said crime scene..."

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

12:30pm, Monday, September 28th. We arrived at University Hospital and parked in the 'Authorized Vehicles Only' area behind the Emergency Room entrances. We went inside the entrance at the 'T', the place where the side wings connected to the main middle part. We went to the Nurses Station at the corner."

"He was rushed into surgery on the 2nd floor." said the Nurse on duty. "Dr. Morgan is with him now, as is Dr. Fredricson."

"Dr. Fredricson?" I said, confused. "Last I checked, she's a gynecologist."

"All I know, sir," said the Nurse, "is that she went in with Dr. Morgan to assist."

"Okay." I said. "When Police Deputy Chief Ross gets here with the victim's wife, have them come up to the 2nd floor Waiting Room."

Teresa and I went up to the waiting room ourselves. I remembered the day Cindy and I were in that room with Chief Griswold when his wife died. (Author's note: 'Vox Populi Vox Dei', Ch. 02-03.)

I called Captain Tanya Muscone and asked which MCD Detectives she was assigning the case. She said "Julia Rodriguez and Teddy Parker. This one's big, since it's Cindy... er, Commander Ross's business partner's husband."

"That's true." I said. "Have you got Carl's cellphone?"

"No sir." said Tanya. "It wasn't found anywhere in the car. His wallet was in the pocket of his athletic pants, with over one thousand dollars in it. We bagged the wallet and money separately as evidence."

"Okay." I said. "Let me know what else they find." After disconnecting, I called Lt. Mary Milton of Intel, and said "Mary, I need you to find out Carl's cellphone number, and I'll get a warrant to get the metadata for it, since the phone itself is missing."

"Wilco, sir. I'm already on it." Mary said. "Uh, sir, should I report my findings to Captain Muscone, or to you?"

"Both." I said. "Send her the report, and cc: it to me." Mary said she would, and we disconnected. Teresa noticed me shaking my head as I sent a text requesting the warrant.

"Problems, sir?" she asked.

"Ahhh, just having to play ring-around-the-roses between Tanya and Mary Milton." I said. "Anyhoo, Carl's cellphone is missing, and I suspect it was taken from his car. So we're going to get a warrant to get metadata------"

Just then Wanda burst into the room, followed by her business partner Ariel as well as Cindy Ross. "Is there any news? What happened?" Wanda asked, her voice sounding shocked and miserable.

"We haven't heard anything yet." I said. "Why don't you ladies sit down. Cindy, you're officially recused from this case, so you can stay with Wanda for all the time she needs you to. I do need to ask you, Wanda, and you, Ariel, a couple of questions."

"Like what?" Ariel asked.

"Like if either of you know if anyone wanted to hurt Carl?" I said. "Was anyone threatening him? Did he have any altercations with anyone at the gym? Dissatisfied customers? Or any problems with anyone that you know about, Wanda?"

"No, no, nothing like that." Wanda said. "Definitely not at the gym."

I said: "Wanda, and Cindy, we're going to need the list of his personal trainer clients, both at the gym and any away from the gym."

"Uh, sure." said Cindy.

"We need to talk about that, Cindy." Ariel said.

"Is there a problem with that?" I asked, a bit sharply.

"Yes there is." Ariel replied. "I don't want our clients harassed by the Police unless and until you have something on someone in particular. And then we'll honor a warrant for those particular persons."

"That's a point." Cindy replied, causing me to 'look' at her "We'll talk about it later, Don."

I'm not sure who was more in disbelief at that, me or Teresa, but I just said "Yes, we'll have to discuss it later. I'll go see what I can find out about Carl's condition. Teresa, stay here with them."