The Babymaker Ch. 04

This story is part of an ongoing series. The chronological order of my stories is 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, racism, 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.

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Part 20 - Not Very Handy (continued)

5:20am, Friday, October 2nd. I drove to Ronald Reagan Park in my Police SUV. The crime scene was over the wooded hill on the back side of the Disc Golf course, very near where James Cialis was found murdered. (Author's note: 'Moonlight Shadow', Ch. 01.)

I was disgusted by what I saw... Police LED lightbars, visible from what seemed miles away, at the entrance to the Park, along the road and up the hill towards the back, and all over the backside of the Park.

At the entrance to the Park, the Officer waved me on in. I stopped and said "Turn off your lightbar! You don't need it!"

"Uh, sir, the Sergeant in charge of the scene said it was regulations to have them on." said the young rookie Officer.

"What's your name, Patrolman?" I asked.

"Jones, sir. Ben Jones." said the young rookie.

"Officer Jones, do you know who I am?" I asked, hating to say it.

"Yes sir. You're Police Commander Troy, sir." said Jones.

"That's right." I said. "And how many Sergeants on this Police Force outrank me?"

"Er, none, sir." Jones said. Then he got the hint. "If you'll excuse me, sir, I'll go turn the lightbar off." I did so, and he did so.

As I drove through the Park, I got on my Police radio and hit the 'Break' button. "Break! Break! Break! This is Commander Troy! All units at the Park, turn off all lightbars in the Park! I say again, turn off all lightbars in the------"

BWEEEEEE!

It was the Break button sound. "Break! Break! Break! This is Sergeant Toole, in charge of this scene. That order is countermanded! All lightbars are to be left on, per regulations! I say again, all lightbars are to be left on!"

I remembered Sergeant Toole, having disciplined him before. (Author's note: 'Hampered In His Plans', Ch. 06.) He had also been the arresting Officer, along with Justin Hendricks, of Peter Dwayne Gordon in the Kendra Luskin case. (Author's note: 'Falsely Accused', Ch. 01.)

I literally saw red. I pulled halfway off the road/trail and stopped, then hit the Break button again, then said slowly and with emphasis: "Break. Break. Break. This. is. Police. Commander. Donald. Troy. I'll say it one. more. time: every vehicle in Ronald Reagan Park is to turn off your lightbars, immediately! ANY Police Officer who leaves a lightbar on in a vehicle assigned to him will be terminated for cause. Once again, this is Police Commander Troy. Turn off the goddamned lightbars!"

Lightbars began being turned off. In the meantime, a Police SUV passed me on the trail at a high rate of speed. It was Lt. Commander Croyle's vehicle. I followed, and we went over the hill and stopped at the crime scene, which was a beehive of activity. Only two Police vehicle lightbars were still on, one at the top of the hill, where all the world could see it, and the other to our east on the backside of the Park. As I got out of my Police SUV, that lightbar to the east went off, and the car beneath it cranked up and began driving away.

I heard Teresa yelling "Goddammit, whose vehicle is on the top of the hill?"

"Sergeant Toole's, ma'am." said Patrolman Johnson.

"Where is Sergeant Toole?" Teresa asked.

"Down there, by the body, ma'am."

"Go get him." Teresa said.

"Never mind that." I said as I came up. "Johnson, get up there and shut off Toole's vehicle's lightbar. Shatter the window to get in there if you have to." Johnson got into a Police cruiser and took off up the hill. A moment later, the beacon lightbar on the hill shut off. (He did not have to shatter the window, in case you were wondering.)

"Toole!" I called out. "Where are you?"

"That's Sergeant Toole!" I heard Toole yell back. It suddenly got very quiet in the area.

"Not for much longer, it's not." I said, loud enough for others to hear. Then I yelled "Toole! Get over here!"

"Who the fuck do you think you are to tell me------" Toole had started, and then realized who it was as I advanced towards him, Teresa right behind me. "What do you want, Commander?" he said rudely, and insubordinately.

"I want to know why you countermanded my order to turn off the lightbars, for openers." I thundered.

"Because it's regulations that the lightbars be on, for visibility and the safety of the Public." Toole said.

"Oh really?" I said. "What regulation is that?"

"I... I'll have to look it up the specific code-------" Toole started.

"SERGEANT!" yelled Lt. Commander Croyle at the top of her lungs. "THAT IS THE POLICE COMMANDER! YOU COME TO THE POSITION OF ATTENTION WHEN HE IS ADDRESSING YOU!"

Toole rather lackadaisically came to attention as I got in his face and said loudly "Sergeant, you are lying to me. There is no regulation that absolutely requires the lightbars to be used."

"I'll look it up, sir," said Toole, "but it's in the regulations. And I want a Union Rep."

"You'll need one." I said. "Commander Croyle, relieve Toole of his Badge and his service weapon. Toole, you are suspended without pay pending processing of your termination for cause."

As Teresa took Toole's service weapon, ripped the Badge off Toole's shirt, and Sr. Patrolman Johnson frisked Toole for more weapons (finding none), I said more quietly but loudly enough for everyone to hear. "You see, Toole, I know that regulation does not exist... because I am the one who wrote the current regulations!" Officers began laughing at that.

"Johnson," I said, "handcuff Toole behind his back and drive him to wherever his POV is, and he can drive home and call his Union Rep from there."

No sooner had Johnson driven off with Toole than the radios squawked. "Patrolman Culver to Commander Troy. Come in Commander Troy."

"Go for Troy." I said into my Police radio.

"Sir, a KXTC vehicle drove into the park." said Culver. "We tried to stop them but they just blew by us."

I hit the Break button, then said "ALL units! Stop that Press van! Do NOT let them get over the hill! Use whatever force you have to!"

Police cruisers took off and approached the KXTC van. From the top of the hill in the woods, I could see the Press van swerve to avoid a Police cruiser coming right at him. Then another Police vehicle nearly rammed the van head on, but it swerved. By now its momentum was gone, and another Police cruiser came up to stop it. The van tried to reverse, but another Police cruiser blocked it.

"Place them under arrest." I said into the radio. "Impound the KXTC vehicle." I said.

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

"Good fucking grief!" I said in exasperation and Teresa and I walked back down the hill towards the crime scene. "I did not want the Press knowing about this yet! And then I drive up and every lightbar is on... unnecessarily. And the Press saw the lights and barreled right on in."

Teresa said "Toole told every vehicle to turn on their lightbars. And Toole parked his car on top of the hill. It might as well have been a lighthouse for the Press. And then he was totally insubordinate to you... er, Don?"

I had stopped and turned around and was looking up the hill. "A lighthouse for the Press..." I said, in a near-reverie. When I finally snapped out of it, I turned to go to the first crime scene, the dead body.

"You think he put his car up there on purpose?" Teresa asked. "So the Press would see it and know something was going on?"

"That's Iron Crowbar thinking, there." I replied. "Sure you don't want to carry one?"

"I'm sorry sir, I didn't hear that." said Teresa with alacrity. "Must be interference in the Space-Time Continuum."

"Heh." I said. "But yes, that is exactly what just crossed my mind."

As we got to the body, I saw Martha the M.E. putting her tools back in her kit bag. "Before you go, Martha," I said, "what can you tell me?"

"I can tell you that Toole is a racist, and I'm glad you busted his chops." Martha said. Then she said: "Oh, the body. Detective Rodriguez said he's David Rose. I can't confirm that yet, because his hands were chopped off. I believe that was done after he died, and I'll confirm that during the autopsy."

"Hmmm." I said.

Martha continued unabated: "The blood around his mouth is there because several of his teeth were pulled out by pliers, also after death, I believe. There is a small puncture wound in the back of his neck, which may be the cause of death, but I need to examine it more closely. And before you ask what you really want to know, I estimate the time of death to be between midnight and 2:00am. Again, I'll get more during the autopsy."

"Okay, thanks." I said.

I called Mark Walker of the CSI Team over. "Anything in the way of footprints, tire tracks, anything like that?"

"No sir." said Walker. "Our first responding Officers did a good job of preserving the crime scene right in the area, but Officer Hendricks drove right down this pathway and parked right in front of us. He moved his vehicle when told to, and I don't think he did a lot of damage; the path is made up of these tiny black rocks, and several vehicles have gone back and forth, so it was already a mess. Also, I've called in to have Intel get all the video data they can."

"Where did Hendricks take his vehicle?" I asked.

"East, sir." said Walker. "He turned around, almost hitting a couple of people, then drove back towards the trail that goes over the hill."

"I'll bet that next-to-last car to turn off its lightbar was Hendricks's car." I said to Teresa, who nodded vigorously in agreement. To Walker I said: "Good work. Let me know if your guys find something... interesting."

I went over to Julia Rodriguez, who was talking to several Officers. When she saw me approaching, she excused herself from them and came up to me.

"You know the first question, Rodriguez." I said. "Who called it in?"

"Dispatch said it was a 9-1-1 call at 4:30am, sir." said Julia. "The phone appears to be a burner. The voice sounded male and young, teen or maybe college-aged. When asked for his name, he said he didn't want to get involved, and disconnected the call. Maybe someone was jogging along here and came across the body, called it in but didn't want to give his name."

"Theorizing without data, are we?" I said, then realized my error. "My apologies, that sounded worse than I intended. And I have a different idea... whoever called it in wanted us to find the body, and find it now; not earlier, and not later."

"Okay, sir, but why?" Julia asked.

"A whole bunch of reasons." I said. "As to the timing, that's simple enough: if the perp wanted it found earlier, he would've called it in earlier. If he wanted it found later, he would've not called it in, and let the Parks & Recreation people or joggers or disc golf players find it."

"With respect, sir," Julia said with a grin, "isn't that obvious?"

"So obvious that it's easy to take it for granted, and not see it for what it is." I replied. "Now why did they want us to find the body? That's more... intuitive on my part, for lack of a better term. The guy you were talking to just yesterday as a possible suspect in Carl Ryder's murder has come over all dead, and his hands were chopped off. He apparently was no longer very handy for someone to have around, to make a terrible pun."

Julia replied flat deadpan: "That's better than the pun about him getting a handjob, sir." I could not help it; I whimpered a laugh, and I heard Teresa chuckling behind me.

"Bad... bad!" I said in an excellent imitation of George H.W. Bush. "Okay, stay here until the CSIs close out the scene. I'm going back to Headquarters. And Julia, you and Teddy and your team are still going to go interview people at the Rose Advertising Firm. We will not be distracted by this setback..."

Part 21 - Quid Pro Quo

6:20am, Friday, October 2nd. I came into Headquarters and went to my office. I set new typing speed records as I completed my report on Sergeant Toole and sent copies to the Chief and Sheriff, and also completed the paperwork to formally suspend Toole and start the process of his termination.

At 6:35am, I called the Intel Center. It was no surprise to me that Auxiliary Officer Terry Halston was at work; after all, by his own admission he was on 'Ranger Time'. I asked Halston to get all the video footage for me on the KXTC van blowing past our checkpoints and their interdiction and arrests, and then all the video he could find on the vehicles being used by Sergeant Toole and Officer Hendricks.

Then I went to the locker room in the gym and quickly showered and shaved and put on a fresh new uniform, and my Duty Dress jacket with ribbons. At 7:00am, I told the Chief that I would not be at the coffee klatch, and where I would be.

I proceeded to the Press Interview Room where Carl Lemay and his team were setting up for an interview. Yes, my 'deal' with Katherine Woodburn was to release Pat Stellum from jail in exchange for a live-to-air interview.

"Nice to meet you, Commander." said Lemay, offering to shake hands, which I did. "We're just about ready. I'm sure you know the drill: Bettina will lead in to us, then I'll start us off."

"Okay." I said. "You're new around here, Mr. Lemay, so I'll tell you that I agreed that this be live on the air without delay. If at any time KXTC delays or breaks the signal, then I'll be told, and the interview will be 'ovah'."

"Gotcha." said Carl Lemay. "By the way, and off the record, how do you think the Election for Mayor is going to go?"

"On the record or off," I said, "I just assume that these mikes are 'hot'. so I'm not going to talk into them. Nothing personal, of course."

"Of course." said Lemay. I don't know if he had been trying to trick me or not, but he got the hint and didn't ask any more questions.

A moment later the technician by the cameraman pointed at Lemay, who took the cue and said "That's right, Bettina! I'm here with Commander Donald Troy regarding the Police investigation of customers of Town Fitness Centers. Commander, aren't you violating people's privacy rights by investigating the gym's customers without probable cause?"

I couldn't help but give a little grin as I said "Carl, I think we all know that first degree murder is very strong (air quotes) 'probable cause'. But let's look at it a little further at this. Whenever Police make a traffic stop, they run a check of the name on the driver's license as well as the car tag, to make sure the person stopped has no arrest warrants or issues."

I continued: "And furthermore to that, Carl, if there was a murder at KXTC's studios, we would interview your fellow employees there to obtain clues to who might have wanted to commit the murder, and we'd run credit checks and general background checks. We do that all the time, businesses do that all the time regarding potential employees. It's routine, and it's legal."

I went on: "And that's what we did at Town Fitness Centers. Carl Ryder was an employee there, and he had clients that hired him as a personal trainer. We would be failing in our duty to find Carl's killer if we did not do routine checks of the murder victim's associates, co-workers, and the like."

I said: "I will add that Town Fitness Centers did not just hand over that information. They forced us to get a subpoena, which I did and which they honored per the law. So when your colleague Stellum was insinuating that they didn't put up a fight, I'd refute that by saying that they most certainly did do what they could to protect their clients's interests, and their clients should be appreciative of Town Fitness Centers's concern for their clients privacy rights."

Lemay: "Did the Police find anything in that investigation, anything leading you to a suspect?"

I replied: "I think it would be more accurate to say we eliminated many potential suspects in our investigation. I won't comment on specifics nor individuals, of course, but we've pretty much concluded our checks of Town Fitness Center's employees and clients."

Lemay: "Commander, Cindy Ross is the Police Deputy Chief, the majority owner of Town Fitness Centers, and your first cousin as well, as your father and her father are brothers. First, doesn't that violate nepotism laws? And second, why didn't you recuse yourself from the investigation?"

I said "Nepotism laws don't apply to Police Officers ranked Captain and above. That originally was so that a son could serve on a Police Force under his father, but it applies to me and Commander Ross, as well. Also, neither of us is in each other's direct chain of command."

Your Iron Crowbar: "As to the recusal issue: one reason I agreed to this interview is because your viewers may not have the full context of what recusals are and why they take place. Yes, Commander Ross is my blood kin, but she was eliminated as a potential suspect by other Detectives very early on in the investigation. And my Detectives are doing most of the work, and I'm in the background. Last, if anything directly involving Commander Ross did come up, that information would be taken to the Chief, the Sheriff, or the Inspector General... most likely to all of them... and I'd be left out of the loop."

Lemay: "One last question, Commander. Your Police Force was served with several 'cease and desist' notices by lawyers of some of the Town Fitness Centers clients, but you and your Police Force ignored those and investigated the clients anyway. Wasn't that willfully breaking the law?"

I said "Of course not, Carl, and here's why. A 'cease and desist' order from a Judge, from a Court, would have to be honored. But a lawyer just handing us a form does not obligate us to anything. Cease and desist orders are most often used to force someone to agree to stop stealing intellectual property, things like that... like someone stealing someone's Detective stories from the Literotica website the stories are on."

I went on: "In general, those lawyers were trying to force us into a contract, and for that to have legal effect, the TCPD would have to agree to the cease and desist order, and sign it. Of course we did no such thing. All of that talk was just chatter that has only confused your viewers."

The technician was gesturing to his watch, the universal sign to be mindful of the time. Carl Lemay said "Thank you for your time and those explanations, Commander. This is Carl Lemay with Police Commander Donald Troy. Back to you, Bettina."

A moment later, Lemay shook my hand and said "Thank you for the interview Commander."

"You really didn't know about our nepotism laws?" I asked skeptically.

"We get asked about that a lot." said Lemay. "So I threw it to you so you could address it, which you did." He was trying to make it sound like he had done me a favor, but I suspected that Carole would've 'known' that he had meant the question as a hostile 'gotcha' question, and that I'd blown it up...

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

"Not bad, Commanderrrr." said the Chief as I came to the Chief's Conference Room after the interview was over.

"I'm curious." Teresa said. "You didn't want others to go to bat for Cindy's gym, but you just did. Why you and not them?"