The Babymaker Ch. 03

"In my Armory." I replied. "On behalf of the Town & County Police, I thank you for your generous contribution to our readiness training." Teresa almost laughed. Almost...

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

I did not go to lunch, as I'd been told that KXTC had a van in the parking lot across the street from the Cop Bar, apparently watching the place, and Patrols were reporting that another KXTC van was parked behind the building at the corner of Riverside and College, the building that KXTC often used for Bettina's reports, and possibly watching Police Headquarters.

"They were parking in the Town Fitness Centers parking lot." Cindy told me earlier as she sat in my office with me. "I got a restraining order against them. They bitched and moaned about it, but they know I won't hesitate to arrest them myself and haul their asses off to jail, and impound their vehicle and camera equipment."

"Unless I beat you to enforcing it, which I will try to do." I said. "So how is your business doing?"

Cindy said "We've lost almost 62% of our recurring customers, but it's leveled off. If it stays there and we can start rebuilding from there, we'll be fine. Unlike many business, I have almost no debt. The building is paid for, the equipment inside is paid for. I might have to lay off some of the staff, though, and I'd hate to do that."

Cindy: "I think the problem going forward will be the partnership with Ariel and Wanda. By the way, Carl's funeral is today at 2:00pm. Teresa is going to have both Precincts provide double coverage of it. If the Press tries to harass Wanda in any way, our Officers are eager to make arrests of the Press, and using whatever force is necessary to effect them."

"Good." I said. "So how is the Budget going?"

"It's going okay." Cindy replied. "The EMS part is tougher, because they're new and still trying to put themselves together. But I think Chief of Staff Oswald is right: we're both hearing that the black Democrats on the Town Assembly want to defund the Police, and will resort to any means to stop the Budget if it has even one dime for the Police. They might even go across the State Line and not come back, so that there won't be a quorum."

"I've heard that, too." I said. "We'll redirect their suppositions, and their locations, when the time comes..."

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

At 2:00pm, Laura and I attended Carl's funeral, with me wearing a civilian suit and tie. Laura's assistant Laurie also attended, and I noticed that the lovely blonde's cheeks were rosy. Carl may have successfully left a little something behind, I thought to myself.

Friends of Carl and Wanda, some of them co-workers, acted as pallbearers. Father Romano and one of the Catholic Church priests conducted the final sacraments and prayers. Cindy was sitting with Ariel and Wanda, but I did not need to be Carole Troy to see there was a decided chill between Ariel and Cindy.

As the funeral ended, a KXTC van pulled up. Pat Stellum and his cameraman got out, set up, and positioned themselves between the mourners and their cars. As they were leaving, he accosted them, asking what they thought of the Police investigating Town Fitness Centers employees. Most brushed by him, but he tried to pursue a few, and they began yelling for him to leave them alone.

That brought the Police over... including their Police Commander. As the Police Officers formed a wall to prevent Stellum from reaching others, he was yelling "We have the Right to be here! We have the Right of a Free Press to be here and interview people!"

"Your rights end where our noses begin!" a voice yelled at him, followed by the appearance of a red crowbar in front of Stellum, held by its owner. I continued: "You have absolutely no right, Press or otherwise, to harass people, especially at a funeral. Now leave, or be arrested."

"Commander Troy," Stellum said, trying to grin as he stuck his microphone at his face, "will you confirm that you are investigating clients of Carl Ryder and invading their lives without warrants, and will you confirm that you have not honored 'cease and desist' orders and have continued to investigate them?"

Teresa was standing next to me, and I handed her the red crowbar. As I fished my pocketknife out of my pocket, Police swarmed the KXTC cameraman, shoved him to the ground, and took his camera away from him. Other Officers surrounded us, so that others could not see what I was doing... which was to grab the microphone by the end out of Stellum's hand, and cut the cord off of the end of it.

"Hey!" Stellum yelled. "Give that back!"

Instead I handed it to Teresa, who put it in an evidence bag. "Gentlemen," I said to the Officers surrounding us, "place this fat slug under arrest. For disturbing the peace, failure to follow a Police Officer's instructions to leave, and trespassing. If he resists arrest... you know what to do."

I turned and walked away, Teresa walking with me. As she handed me the red crowbar back, I heard Stellum yelling obscenities, followed by the thud of him being violently thrown to the ground, and handcuffs applied to his wrists behind his back...

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

3:10pm. When we got back to Headquarters, my assistant Helena told me that Lt. Mary Milton wanted to see me. I changed clothes back to my uniform, then called her into the office. Just as she came in the door, Senior Detective Joanne Warner came into the anteroom. "I have the financial data for you, sir." she called out.

"Come on in, then." I said. We all sat down, then I said, "Okay, Mary, whaddya got?"

"A question, sir." said Mary. "Your wife is officially our Police Psychologist and an Auxiliary Officer. Do you think it's possible to have her analyze some of these tapes?"

"Uh, maybe." I said. "What would she be analyzing?"

"I'll show you sir." said Mary, putting her laptop on the desk. I plugged it into my computer monitor so we could all see it, and I closed the curtains over the outside window as Mary closed the blinds to the anteroom.

"There's something about this one tape that's bothering me, sir." Mary said. The video came up, showing Carl fucking an absolutely beautiful woman with brown hair, and skin darker than white but lighter than black. Mary backed the tape up to show the woman and her husband as Carl came into the room.

"Wow, he looks just like Ned Flanders, Homer Simpson's neighbor." I said, referring to the characters on the 'The Simpsons' long-running television series. Mary laughed out loud.

"Miltie... er, Lieutenant Myron Milton, said that when he saw him, too." Mary said. "Anyway, this woman is Carla Rose. She listed herself as Hispanic on her drivers license application. Her husband David Rose is one of the husbands that was present to watch his wife with Carl."

"Okay." I said as I skipped forward and watched the rutting couple humping passionately on the bed. Mary then switched to another tape, showing Carl fucking another woman, a bit older than Carla Rose had been, and not as beautiful but still lovely.

"This is Amy Fey." said Mary. "Her husband is not present at her coupling with Carl. I'll spare you watching the whole thing now, but the Cliffs Notes are that hers is a very typical mating: just a little bit of fellatio as foreplay as she uses a vibrator on herself, then he mounts her in the missionary position and they copulate. It's pretty stiff and mechanical, and the word 'professional' comes to my mind as I watch it. There is no kissing until right as Carl climaxes at the end, and there is virtually no afterplay. They get dressed and leave with only a little small talk."

Mary went back to the Carla Rose video. "In this video, which is their second recorded session, Carla and Carl make out heavily and engage in fellatio and cunnilingus for a relatively extended time before having intercourse. They kiss often during intercourse, with a lot of tongue-twining and open-mouthed French kissing, and both of them seem a lot more 'into it' than Carl or the women in most of the other videos."

"Hmmm, and you think there might've been more than just a mating and insemination going on there?" I asked.

"Yes sir." Mary said. "I just thought your wife might pick up on some tells that I'm not... er, experienced with."

I smiled and nodded. "I hear you. And you may be right. Yes, I think we can ask Laura to come in and look at the Carla Rose tape for us------"

"Uh, sir?" Joanne said, blushing furiously. When we looked at her, she said "I'm sorry, sir, I know she's your wife and all, but... it may not be a good idea that she sees this evidence."

"Why not?" I asked. "And spit it out. I'm not going to get mad at you if it's legitimate."

Joanne steeled herself and said "Sir, I've been running the financial data and other data on each of these women. So far, none of them are members of Town Fitness Centers. But every one of them, except one, visited their gynecologist prior to meeting with Carl the first time. They all paid either through their insurance or credit card, making it very easy to trace. And every woman's gynecologist... is your wife, Dr. Laura Fredricson..."

Part 17 - Wherever The Evidence Takes Us

"I seeeeeee." drawled the Chief of Police as Mary, Joanne, and I sat in the Chief's Conference Room, having briefed him on Joanne's findings about my wife being all the women's gynecologist. "Of course... your wife is the chief gynecologist on Staff at University Hospital, she has many gynecology patients, does she not?"

"True, Chief." I said. "But her assistant Laurie is one of those women. And while Callie Carrington procured the gym bag with the camera that Carl used to video many of the liaisons, Callie is Laura's employee, and also her CIA associate. So the question is if I should recuse myself now, and completely, or not."

The Chief nodded. "You are definitely not to mention this to to your wife, Ms. Carringtonnnn, nor Commander Rosssss, Mis-ter Crowbarrrrr. Nor to young Carole, just saying for the record. You are also forbidden to investigate your wife nor know anything about our investigation of her, which I am afraid will have to happen."

"Chief," said Joanne, "of course we understand that Commander Troy can't investigate his wife nor be involved with anything to do with her in the investigation. But we can't just do even the routine checks we do on other people, like the Town Fitness Center employees. Dr. Fredricson is CIA, and even though she's retired, the CIA will come down on us like a ton of bricks if we start probing into her."

"There's also the doctor-client privilege aspect of it to think about, sir." I said. "And as a psychiatrist, she has that legal shield covering her relationships with her clients, as well. But all that is neither here nor there. The question is my status with regard to this investigation. While I fully trust my Detectives to get the job done investigating this, I'm already hip deep in it, and I don't want to stop now."

"Like I said beforrrrre," repeated the Chief, "it may just be a coincidence that your wife is these women's gynecologist. Until we see that it is more, you carry on, Mr. Crowbarrr. However... you are not to interview any of these women nor their spouses personally; let the Detectives do it. You may receive reports from your Detectives and you may give them advice and di-rec-shunnnnn. But stay out of the field." I nodded.

Chief Moynahan: "I will talk with Lt. Mary Milton and Lt. Jerome Davis on who to assign to look into Dr. Fredricson's role in all this. I would imagine that the Sheriff and I will have to brief the Inspector General on it, as wellll." We all nodded.

The Chief finished up: "Okayyyy, you're excused, Commander Troy and Detective Warnerrrrr. Loo-tenant Milton, stay here with me."

Joanne and I got out while the getting was good, and went back to my office. "Sorry about that, sir." she said apologetically.

"You were absolutely correct to bring that up, and in the timely manner that you did." I said. "Okay, why don't you brief me on what you've found. Let's start with Carla Rose and her husband David."

"Yes sir." Joanne said. "Carla Ramirez Rose is a partner in a company called 'The Rose Advertising Firm, LLC'. Her husband David Rose, who looks like Homer Simpson's neighbor Ned Flanders, is the founder of the firm, and they have other partners. The company has been doing steady advertising work for Big Boy companies like BigPharmaCorp, BigWirelessCorp, and BigCommunicationsCorp, a.k.a. 'BigCommo'."

Joanne: "The first 'strangeness' (air quotes) that I found was that the company is based in the City, but Carla and David work out of their office in our Town & County, in the Downtown District." I nodded.

Joanne: ""Carla is 30 years old, and she has a degree from the University in Advertising, graduating with a 3.75 GPA, so she has brains as well as all that beauty." I nodded vigorously in agreement.

Joanne: "David Rose is 42 and has a Business Management degree from City University, graduating with a 3.25 GPA. And here's the second 'strangeness'... he was a member of the Tau Fraternity at City U. They don't have the reputation the Taus here did, though." (Author's note: 'Unresolved'.)

"Still..." I said, almost going into a reverie. Then I recovered and said "Okay, keep going."

"Carla owns a condo in the Tower Condos, next to University Hotel." said Joanne. "That one is in her name. The company owns a condo in the City, in the infamous Wynand Building. Infamous to us, that is." I smiled at the recollection. (Author's note: 'The Guardians of Justice', Ch. 05.)

Joanne: "They're making good money, and don't have many personal expenses. David uses the company credit card a good bit for company-related expenses, which include some clothing, hotel stays, and lunches. I'm not the financial expert that Purvis and Commander Ross are, but it looks legit."

"Hmm, very interesting." I said as I looked at the papers Joanne had handed to me. "Okay, who's next on your list------"

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

It was my landline phone. I answered it.

"Sir, this is the Duty Desk up front." said the Duty Desk Sergeant. "Senator Katherine Woodburn is between asking and demanding to speak to you personally, sir."

"Who's with her?" I asked.

"Just one assistant." said the Duty Desk Sergeant. "Name is Clark. Black hair, glasses, nerdy."

"Yeah, he's her longtime assistant." I said. Clark was Katherine's longtime Satyr, too, but I decided not to mention that.

I continued: "Make sure neither of them has a weapon, then escort Senator Woodburn to my office. Clark can sit in the Press Room or the Main Conference Room; his choice..."

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

"Hello, Senator." I said as I stood behind my desk as Helena admitted Senator Woodburn into my office. "You know Commander Croyle." Oh yeah, Teresa was in the room with me.

"Yes." said Katherine. "Nice to see you again, Commander. I was so happy to hear you escaped harm in that airplane incident."

"Thank you, ma'am." Teresa said, politely shaking Katherine's hand. I shook Katherine's hand across the desk, then invited her and Teresa to sit down. The Iron Wolf sat on the sofa, while Katherine sat in the hot chair nearest the door.

"Coffee? Water?" I politely offered.

"No thank you," said Katherine, "and excuse me for getting right to the point. I am here to get my reporter and his cameraman back... and the camera, and the microphone you took."

"You can pay their bail, when they're arraigned and it's set." I said. Katherine's look at me was an excellent combination of a smirk, a sneer, and an angry scowl.

"Stop disrespecting me like that, and I won't have to start disrespecting you." Katherine 'warned'. "Your case is on thin grounds as it is. Police used excessive force in arresting both men, and they have every Right of a Free Press to be on public property, which the Cemetery is, and ask people questions related to Mr. Stellum's hard-hitting story on Mr. Ryder's death and the illegal Police investigations of his co-workers."

"Now who's disrespecting who?" I replied. "You know damn well our investigations are not illegal. On the other hand... funerals are not public functions, so Stellum's intrusion upon it was a violation of Mr. Ryder's widow's rights. Furthermore, as the old saying 'your rights end where mine begin' goes, Stellum does not have the right to harass anyone, and several persons were shouting at him to leave them alone. We have that on videotape, and it's probable cause to arrest him."

I went on: "But most of all, Stellum should be really careful about shoving a microphone into my face, as he did. He was lucky this time. Next time that microphone gets shoved up his ass. And the next time after that... the crowbar comes out."

"Not to mention the ol' 'assaulting a Police Officer' charge." Teresa added.

"Good point, Iron Wolf." I said. "And Senator, I know that KXTC and I hate each other, and that will never change... but for that fat asshole to show up at a funeral like that, and start harassing people? The only thing worse I've seen from the Press was reporter John Hardwood putting my daughter in a warehouse full of explosives." (Author's note: 'Teresa's Christmas Miracle', Ch. 01.) "I mean seriously, that was a new low point for KXTC, and they have set some mighty low bars in the past."

Katherine peered at me, then said "I perceive that you're angling for something. What is it? What's our quid pro quo to resolve this?" I had to give Katherine credit for correctly observing that.

"First," I said, "I would suggest you rein Stellum in. Hard. He keeps up the path he's on... like being in the vicinity of a murderous attack on my daughter," (Author's note: 'Big In Japan', Ch. 04-05.) "then he's going to cross a line, and things will get ugly for him."

"And second..." I said, leaning forward and springing my trap, "you're going to arrange something for me..." Teresa's eyes widened as she listened to my words...

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

4:05pm, Thursday, October 1st. The meeting in Classroom 'E' was attended by Me, the Chief, Commander Croyle, Captain Muscone, Lieutenant Davis, Lieutenant Rudistan, and Detectives Rodriguez, Parker, Warner, Washington, and Purvis.

"Okay, we're at a critical juncture in this case." I said. "Here's what I need. Julia, you and Teddy are going to go interview Carla Rose and her husband David at their apartment at Tower Condos. If they don't let you into their home, bring them to Headquarters."

Me: "Teddy, you will be wearing a camera that will look like a button on your collar, and you both will be wearing earbuds. I'll be monitoring your conversation, and may from time to time whisper sweet nothings in the form of questions, hoping to get back hard somethings in the form of answers in return. Also, if they balk at anything, or if I direct you to, be ready to bring them in for further questioning."

"Joanne and Theo, you'll interview my wife's assistant Laurie." I said. "Since she's my wife's assistant, we will err on the side of extreme caution and I will have nothing to do with it while you're conducting it. But I'll watch the video of it, as you'll be conducting it from Interrogation-Alpha. Uniformed Officers are already on the way to escort her to Headquarters, and the Chief is calling my wife to make sure there is no interference. Additionally, here's what you need to do..."

Part 18 - Interviews

Detectives Joanne Warner and Theo Washington entered the anteroom of Laura's office suite in the Psychology Building at the University, followed by Detective Laurer and Corporal Hicks, both in uniform.

"Hello, Laurie." said Joanne to the lovely blonde assistant behind her desk. "We need for you to come to the Station with us."