The Babymaker Ch. 04

"Besides the obvious reasons that 'I yam what I yam'," I said with a grin, "the difference was that I was saying that on KXTC itself!" Cindy's interview with Priya on KFXU was 'preaching to the choir'. Mine was to the people that the Enemy tells what to think every morning."

Sheriff Griswold growled "In other words, young whippersnapper: 'only Nixon could go to China.'." Young whippersnappers these days probably don't even know what means anymore, I thought to myself.

"I'm shocked KXTC let you do that at all." the Chief said. "But Carl Lemayyyy treated you well enough, wouldn't you say?"

I shook my hand in a 'so-so' gesture. "Yes, he was polite enough, but his questions weren't 'friendly' at all. The good news is that he did let me answer them without cutting me off, which surprised me a bit. I also noted that he did not cut me off when I took a shot at Pat Stellum... that's something to put into a compartment of our minds."

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

At 7:50am, I was called into the Chief's office again. I grabbed my laptop, then went to the office and on inside, to find waiting for me the Chief, Sheriff... and State Senator Katherine Woodburn, owner of KXTC. The Chief had me sit down next to her. I tried hard to not look too much at her magnificent legs, shaped wonderfully by the high heel pumps she was wearing.

"We had a deal, Commander." Katherine said. "And I honored my side of it: you got live time on my network in exchange for dropping the charges against Pat Stellum. And then you went and arrested him again this morning.

"And there was a reason for that. Let's watch some TV." I said. I opened my laptop, and began showing Katherine some videos.

"Senator," I said as she watched, "Pat Stellum and his driver, also his cameraman, blew right past a Police blockade point without stopping, and attempted to enter a restricted area that was a crime scene. They refused to stop when pursued, and we literally had to box them in to make them stop. They were arrested for that."

Katherine said "Have you not heard of the Right of a Free Press?"

I replied "And have you not heard that not only do your rights end where ours begin, but that that we have the right to do our jobs to bring justice to the victim of the crime, which supersedes your general Press rights. Stellum does not have the right to disrespect my Police Force by just blowing by a Police checkpoint without stopping, and he does not have the right to contaminate my crime scenes with his rude, arrogant presence."

I went on, my voice ominous as I said: "And Senator... my Officers would've been correct to shoot and kill him when he blew past the checkpoint. And next time he or any KXTC van tries that stunt, my Officers will be shooting to kill."

"So curb your dog, Senator." said the Chief. "I fully agree with the Commander, and I support his actions and those of my Officers this morning. Mr. Stell-mmmm is beginning to tread on very dangerous ground. May I suggest he be persuaded to make an 'attitude adjustment'?"

"Coming from the boss of this man?" Katherine fired back, pointing at me. "That's cheeky at best, hypocritical at worst."

Sheriff Griswold growled "Ms. Woodburn, you must not have been listening. The difference between the Iron Crowbar and your arrogant reporter Stellum... besides the obvious fact that the Iron Crowbar is a real man and Stellum is less of a man than you are... is that Stellum could have been shot and killed by my TCPD Officers this morning, and they would've been justified in doing so. I really do suggest you keep that in mind, and get your reporter under control."

"Whatever." Katherine said disdainfully. She stood up, then said "I want my reporter, his cameraman, and their van and all their equipment back." Then she looked at me and said "And no quid pro quo deals this time."

"Very well." said the Chief. "But this is the lasssst timmmme. And don't test me on that."

"Seriously, Katherine," I said, "that is 'strike two' for Stellum. Strike three... will be a very ugly 'out'. Just sayin', is all."

Katherine did not bother to reply, and I did not bother to pretend I wasn't ogling her ass and legs as she walked to the door and exited the office.

"She's more of a man than Stellum." I said. "But she's definitely a woman."

"You are a bad, bad man, Mister Crowbarrrr." said the Chief. "Okayyyy, let's talk about this incident with Toooole. I.A. is already on it, and getting statements from the Officers there. Be a dear, Commander, and let them have your statement as wellllll."

"Yes sir." I said. "And I'm glad the Sheriff is here, because I now have an idea of where at least some of the Press leaks might be coming from."

That got the Sheriff's attention. "What do you mean, Crowbar?" he growled.

"Sheriff," I said, "when you put out that word about finding leaks, we went further. We forced every Officer and civilian employee to change their computer and Police iPhone and iPad passwords, and to passkeys that were much stronger than many of them were using. Teresa also had everyone change out the encryption chips on all the Police radios... every single one of them, be they hand-held or vehicle radios."

I continued: "The encryption chips are actually physical wafers that are inserted into the radios, with five different keysets. We've been on the last keyset of the last chipset for a long time, because the chips are expensive. But we went far longer than we should have, and that's my fault. So Teresa ordered the chips swapped out the other night after you got fired up about the leaks."

I said: "I've also made it SOP that the Police not communicate on the open, unencrypted Channel unless it's a life-or-death emergency. Everyone is on Channel 1, which is now encrypted. And we've instituted tighter controls of the radios... they have to be accounted for, and Teresa is very good about making unannounced spot checks on things like that." The Sheriff nodded and the Chief, a military veteran, chuckled at that.

I continued: "Early this morning, Sergeant Toole took charge of that crime scene. He ordered every Police cruiser to turn on their lightbars, which lit up the Park in blue and white like it was Hanukkah or something. I came up, gave orders to shut off the lightbars, and Toole actually got on the radio and said they had to be left on, citing 'regulations'."

I went on: "I asserted my authority and got them turned off, but Toole's car was parked on the very top of the hill and was very visible, and I had to send someone else up to turn off his lightbar. Additionally, one other car left it's lightbar on until I confronted Toole, and I've found out that that car was Justin Hendricks's."

I said: "Of course I was trying to keep the Press from seeing the blue lights and trying to investigate, but sure enough, they showed up. And Stellum actually tried to just bypass our checkpoint. I'll bet you both a hundred dollars that we hear a complaint that the Police cruiser's lightbar wasn't on, causing Stellum not to see the car at all nor realize it was a checkpoint."

"Crowbar," growled the Sheriff, "if you think I'm going to bet you any amount of money at all on any thing at all, you got another 'think' coming!" I chuckled.

"Well, I tried." I replied.

"Soooo," drawled the Chief, "you think Hendricks and Toole were deliberately trying to guide the Press to us? I know Hendricks is a Union-pro-tec-ted dirt-bagggg, but Toole, too?"

"So I read the riddle, sir." I replied. "First, Hendricks is not on third shift, which was providing the Uniformed coverage at the scene. He should not have been there at all but he was there. And when he turned off his lightbar, he drove on away, completely leaving the scene and the Park."

I said: "And let me refresh your memories on Toole. A few years ago he was disciplined by me, a suspended reduction in rank to Corporal, after he cited a black person as being at fault in a collision with a white person. The white man even told Toole that it was his own fault, and Toole told him to shut up or he'd be arrested, and proceeded to issue the citation to the black man. The good news is that the white man was honest enough to go to Court and tell the Judge the truth, so the Judge just dropped all the charges."

I continued: "That punishment for Toole also was for his involvement in a bar fight at one of the watering holes along University Avenue. I didn't know it at the time, but I went back and checked the Police reports of the incident. The fight started when two black men came into the bar, and Toole confronted them and told them to leave, that 'their kind' would not be served there. He also threw the first punch in the fight that turned into a 'Ballroom Blitz' free-for-all. Fortunately, Toole was not in uniform nor on duty, so the Police evaded culpability for that."

"And he's still on my Police Force?" Chief Moynahan said.

"Yes sir." I said. "Toole did exhibit those signs of racism, but he cleaned up his act after I gave him the suspended sentence, and there's been no problem with him since. He's mostly assigned to duties at County Jail and Precinct 1, and last night was the first time I've heard his name, for good or bad, for a long, long time."

I finished: "Oh, there's one more thing... he was the arresting Officer of Peter Dwayne Gordon in the Kendra Luskin case... and the Officer that made the arrest with him was?..." I let the question hang.

"Hendricks." spat the Sheriff, absorbing the lesson. I nodded, and he said "And if we even try to question that fat son of a bitch, he'll demand a Union Rep and cry that we're harassing him."

"Yes sir." I said. "So let's let him think he got away with something, and we can start monitoring him, Toole, and Jeremy Hatch all the more closely."

"We've been monitoring Hatch." said the Chief. "He complained to the Union about being assigned to holding a stop sign at school crossings, and they grieved it. He was put in Personnel & Records, but Commander Ross and Lieutenant Wausau formally complained about that after he fucked up some paperwork that caused three Police Officers to not get paid for a week, and then one Court case that Nance threw out because Hatch had fucked up the paperwork. I wrote him up, and the Union grieved it, hard, and somehow they won."

"Soooooo," finished the Chief, "he's assigned to patrol with Hendricks twice a week, and the Duty Desk the other days of the week, and the Duty Desk Sergeants watch him carefully and yell in his ear like Drill Sergeants if he fucks up anything at allllll."

"I don't like that he's out there with Hendricks." I said. "I take it that's Internal Affairs's doing?"

"Not much gets past yooooo, Mister Crowbarrrr." drawled the Chief. "Not very much a'tall...."

Part 22 - A Rose By Any Other Name

9:10am, Friday, October 2nd. As I was finishing up my report of my observations the David Rose crime scene, I got a call on my Police iPhone from Detective Julia Rodriguez.

"Sir," she said, "Teddy Parker and I went to Carla and David Rose's condo to officially inform her of her husband's death, but she wasn't there. I called in to get a ping Carla's cellphone, but when Teddy and I proceeded to go to the local office of the Rose Advertising Firm with Coleman, Newman, Joan Laurer and Lisa Monroe to question the employees, Carla was there."

Julia: "So we canceled the request for the phone ping. We took Carla aside and informed her of David's death, but there's another problem: the manager here won't let us talk to the employees without warrants, nor see any data without subpoenas."

"I'm on my way." I said.

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

Teresa and I arrived at the offices of the Rose Advertising Firm, wearing Police armor over our uniform shirts. As we approached the door, two Security guards blocked the door. "The office is closed. No one is permitted inside."

"We're the Town & County Police." I said. "We're here on official business. Our business."

"Where's your warrant?" said the first security man, a big burly black man.

"Right here." I said, pulling the document out from my trenchcoat pocket, but not handing it to him. "Now are you going to move, or am I going to arrest you?"

"You must be hard of hearing, dumbass." said the second Security man, who was shorter than the first man, laconic in manner, and white. "Warrant or not, you are not going in there. If you try, we'll whip your asses."

Teresa and I glanced at each other. "So be it." I said, and reached for the door handle. The big black man grabbed my wrist, and that was all I needed. I made an Aikido move that turns into him, grabbing his hand that had grabbed my arm in my other hand, and smashed my foot into his kneecap. Since knees don't bend backwards, bad things happened to the ligaments of his knee. As he howled in pain, I smashed my fist into his nose and he went down in a heap. Didn't even need a crowbar, I thought to myself.

The white Security guard went after Teresa. She had even more fun, as she guided the arm he was using to throw a punch at her past her face, then took him down with a blow to his deltoid. Since arms don't flex backwards all that far, something had to give... and his shoulder separated as a result, even as he suffered the extra indignity of his face smashing into the carpet of the floor.

We handcuffed them behind their backs as they howled in pain and begged for medical attention. Instead of knocking, I made use of the red crowbar, and jimmied the door open with it. The lock yielded with a loud *SNAP!*

We went inside to find shocked employees and Police Detectives staring at us. We shoved the Security men down hard, and they couldn't break their falls so their faces and chests slammed onto the floor.

I said loudly: "These two are under arrest for obstructing a Police investigation and assaulting Police Officers. Now are the rest of you going to cooperate with us?"

"No!" yelled a portly man with brown hair and a rather 'ordinary' mustache. "I'm the manager here. Now you and your Pigs get warrants, or get the hell out! And I insist that I be allowed to call our attorneys!"

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Robert Porter." said Robert Porter.

"Here's the warrant." I said, handing it to him. "It allows me to seize every document of the Rose Advertising Firm, and bring in all the employees for questioning."

Porter said loudly: "Nobody talks to them without our attorneys present!"

I said "Commander Croyle, call County Jail and have them send the 'school bus' and Officers to process the arrest of every employee here."

As Teresa turned and got out her cellphone, I said loudly "The 'school bus' is that orange Police bus that we take prisoners to places to pick up trash and cut the grass... you know, the ubiquitous '1000 hours of community service'? Take your cellphones with you, so you can call lawyers once we get there."

I went on: "All of you will be booked. Fingerprints, photographs, the works. And those photographs likely will find their way to the Press, and shown to the entire County------"

"Officer!" said a woman, "I'll be glad to cooperate. You don't have to take us to jail!" There were many murmurs of agreement.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but my hands are tied." I said. "Your manager Porter has spoken for all of you."

"He doesn't speak for me, Commander." said a tall lanky man.

"Shut up!" said Robert Porter. "Anyone who talks to the Pigs without our attorney present will be fired!"

'FUCK OFF, PORTER!" said another man, who was handsome and looked like a potential leader. "Commander, I'm willing to talk to you, but is it really necessary for all of us to go to County Jail?"

I relented. "No, as long as you cooperate." To Julia Rodriguez I said quietly "Where is Carla Rose?"

"In her office, with Laurer." said Julia.

"Okay." I said. "Croyle, have Monroe and Newman call in some Uniformed Officers to take her, Porter, and these two bozos to Headquarters. For these guys, full booking: prints, photos, the latest fashion in orange jumpsuits, the whole nine yards. Obstruction and assaulting Police Officers for the bozos; obstruction for Porter, here. Then get the security guards the medical attention they're claiming they need."

I continued: "Hold Carla in I-1, let her call her lawyer. She's under arrest for suspicion of murder, but don't tell her nor her lawyer exactly for whose murder just yet. Maybe she or the lawyer will slip up, eh wot?"

"Roger that, sir." Teresa said, then moved out smartly to complete her mission...

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

It went surprisingly easily after that. Everyone was fingerprinted; I explained that we were dusting for prints, so they'd all have to be fingerprinted so we'd know when their prints showed up, and they all readily accepted that.

The Detectives began questioning the employees in their conference room while the CSI techs and Myron Milton went to work on their papers, security video footage, and computer files. I had all the Detectives download the DMV photo of David Rose, so they could show it to the employees when needed.

Then I went in and sat in the corner (literally) and listened to the interviews. The following is a consensus of the questions and answers:

"Carla is very nice, to all of us. We all like her. Yes, she works from this office all the time, almost every day."

"I hate David. He's one of the meanest assholes I've ever met. He's driven good people away. He plays favorites. No, not to Carla, but other execs. Thank God he stays in the City most of the time, and rarely comes here."

"I guess Carla and David got along. They're still married, aren't they? No, I never heard them fight. No, I never saw signs of abuse... well, Carla had a black eye this past Monday. She said she and David were celebrating her pregnancy, she was tipsy from the wine she drank, and turned the corner and ran into the refrigerator door that he'd opened."

At the end, per my instructions, Julia would hold up her iPhone and say "Do you recognize this man?" No one said they did. At first, Julia was shocked, but as each person said the same thing she began seeing the truth of the matter.

And then one woman had said "I heard on the news just now that David is dead. Is that for real? I mean, we had a videoconference with him at 8:00am this morning. He's in the City."

After the interviews were over, Julia turned to me and said "Sir, how did you know?"

"Logic." I said. "They cut off David's hands and pulled some of his teeth Whoever did that... and called it in so that we would find out when we did... must've done it to keep him from being quickly identified through fingerprints or dental records, trying to keep us from finding out who he really is. We'll run his DNA profile through national and State databases, and see if anything pops up."

I said "I also had a nagging feeling about it after your interviews with him and Carla. And I think y'all observed it, too... the timid wife-watcher that we all saw, that Teddy derided, just didn't seem to be a guy who would be a Tau Fraternity member, a man who built up an advertising firm to be the go-to firm for the Big Boy companies, one of the (air quotes) 'hobnobbers' with the Elites. What my lying eyes were seeing just did not match up with what I'd expected. And of course, when that employee said David was on a conference call this morning, that sealed it. So I had you show them David's photo, and none of them recognized him. Ergo..." I let the sentence hang.

"...the man who Carla is saying was her husband, isn't her husband." Julia finished. All of the other Detective listening in were equally stunned.

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

When I got back to Police Headquarters, I went to my office and made some phone calls. Then I got up and went into MCD.