The Babymaker Ch. 04

"So as far as you know, no other employees of the gym nor Carl's clients through the gym were part of it, much less running it?" I asked.

"Not to my knowledge." Ariel said. "Okay, look, here's the full story. A few months ago, I caught Wanda hiding the server under the walkway by the Fire Exit door one night after hours, and she told me everything. And once the secret was out, she asked if I wanted to help her and Carl make and edit their sex videotapes at home. And I did. Some of the women that Carl was impregnating, mostly the women whose husbands were present and watching, wanted a videotape or DVD of the 'experience', as we called it. And so I was the camerawoman for it."

"Did you film any of the other guys in the ring having sex with their... clients, for lack of a better term?"

"No." Ariel said. "Again, I didn't know about them. Carl only told us that he was part of a ring, but he didn't know who the other guys in the ring were, and that was to have plausible deniability in case someone found out about it."

"So you don't know how Carl got involved in the ring, nor how it works?" I asked.

"No." Ariel said. "I don't think Carl gave Wanda the details, either, if he even knew them himself. From what I heard, it was highly compartmentalized, like a Government operation, so that no one person could bring anyone else down."

I nodded. "So is there anything, anything at all, you can tell me that will help me find Carl's killer? Anyone who might've wanted to harm him? Jealous husband?"

Ariel said "Like I said, I don't know. The husbands who were with their wives seemed to enjoy watching it, and I didn't see any jealousy or anger from them, but who knows how they felt later on?..."

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

Gibson Stelling went into I-A via the hallway doors, where Wanda was. I came through the anteroom door a moment later. Just me, having asked Tanya to watch from the anteroom or the Monitor Room.

"Wanda," I said as I sat down, "I hope you know that I am very sorry for your loss of your husband, and it causes me great pain to have to subject you to these questions. I hope you know that I'm only doing this to find your husband's killer or killers."

I said "I understand why you've acted the way you have... people won't understand your relationship with your husband, not like I do. I understand you allowing Carl to impregnate those women. By rights, my own wife should've taken my own crowbar to my head for having children by other mothers, but she says she understands since she couldn't give me more kids." Wanda nodded, her face looking miserable.

"So," I continued, "I need to know everything you can tell me about this Babymaker ring that your husband was a part of. I'll be as discreet as I can, but I have to know."

Wanda nodded. "Okay. Where do you want me to start?"

"I'm not being facetious when I say 'at the beginning'." I said. "When did Carl first get involved with the Babymaker ring?"

Wanda said: "I'll just tell the story from the very beginning. You know that Carl made that girl Stella pregnant when he was still a student in School." (Author's note: 'The Knave of Jacks'.) "Well, Stella had the baby, but her family, especially her bastard father, wouldn't let Carl see the baby nor have anything to do with it. He even got a restraining order against Carl, even though Stella is well over 21 now and might have no problem with Carl seeing his child."

"I can relate." I said, pain in my soul as I thought of my daughter Greta.

Wanda said "I can't give Carl children, of course. So this past Winter, Carl told me that someone had talked to him about a group of guys that were getting together to form a group to offer a service: become sperm donors via the natural insemination method. Carl said that if we couldn't have children, at least he could make other women and couples happy by giving them children. I thought it was a good idea, and I could see that it made Carl happy to be able to do that."

"Do you know who first contacted him, and how?" I asked. "And do you know how this group got started?"

"Carl just said it was 'a friend'." Wanda said. "He also said he didn't know who the other guys in the group were, and didn't want to know for reasons of 'plausible deniability'. And I accepted that. As to who started it, I'd always thought it was some guys in a Fraternity on Campus, and they acted on their idea when they graduated."

Wanda: "Carl and I were already making sex videos, so we used some of the equipment to process his secret videos of the women he met and inseminated. That was for our protection, in case a woman accused Carl of rape if her husband found out about the insemination... kind of like that Kendra Luskin case." (Author's note: 'Falsely Accused'.)

I said "How was Carl contacted for these... hookups?"

"Emails." said Wanda. "He had an email account that he accessed on only one laptop, and never used that laptop for anything else, so if it were lost or stolen, he couldn't really be compromised by it. He also did not use that laptop for any videos. He got paid in cash, and he never knew the real names of the women he was impregnating. It was a very insulated, compartmentalized operation."

"Did Carl tell you about each of his liaisons with these women?" I asked.

"Oh yes." Wanda said. "Part of it for his protection, part of it because it usually made him late for work at the gym, part of it because we don't keep secrets from each other, part of it because I could see the money he was depositing into our bank account, and part of it because talking about it made his sex with me a lot hotter."

"Did he ever say anything about one woman being particularly hot or good, or if any husbands that watched were acting jealous?" I asked. "And I have to ask this... did you ever think he was not telling you something, that he was keeping something from you, whether for your protection or any other reason?"

For the first time I saw a bit of hesitation in Wanda. "Uhhh, no, I never got a sense of that, that he was avoiding telling me anything, or that he kept any of his encounters a secret."

"And as far as you know, he never met a woman for sex when it wasn't her fertile period?" I asked. "He never met a woman for casual sex?"

"Not that I know of." said Wanda with alacrity.

"Okay." I said. "I appreciate your talking to me about this. It really will help me find your husband's killers, and nail them to the wall."

"I hope you do, Commander." Wanda said. "I hope you do..."

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

"I've got a few things for you." said Tanya Muscone when I got back to my office, followed by her driving in and parking on a dime in front of my desk. "First, our CSI Techs that went to Carla Rose's condo found that it had not been broken into, that nothing had been disturbed."

Tanya: "Terry Halston in Intel did some research of the camera footage in the Downtown District for the last week. No luck on seeing David go into any businesses nor the stairwells to the apartments, but he did catch a black muscle car turning into one of the parking lot alleys. So Penny Scott and Sidney Plant went and asked around, and found out where David lived." She told me the address.

"Outstanding!" I said. "What did they find?"

"They called in for a warrant and for the CSIs to come in." Tanya said. "There was virtually nothing in that place. A raggedy old sofa bed, one table and one lamp, a refrigerator that I'm told should not be trusted to keep food in, and two changes of clothes. No utensils nor food in the kitchen, no washer and dryer, etc."

"No signs of a struggle?" I asked.

"No blood or anything." said Tanya. "There's not enough stuff in there to leave any signs of a struggle. Anyway, David Rose a.k.a. Flanders's autopsy is back, as well."

I looked at the report and said "So he was stabbed in the back of the neck, really the base of the head, with a long, thin stiletto knife., which severed his spinal cord and damaged his medulla. Probably died instantly, or nearly so. The chopped-off hands and pulled teeth were definitely done after death, and some significant time after death. Martha has revised her time of death estimate to between 11:00pm and 1:00am, likely on the earlier side of that window."

"So, Lady Ironside," I said as I finished reading the autopsy, "what do you make of all this? Not just the autopsy, but everything?"

Tanya said "I've been on the periphery of it, as the Chief and Sheriff asked me to work on finding the leaks, and also to just get out of your way. But I've kept track of the reports, and of course I watched some of Carl's steamy videos with Carla." I smiled at that.

Tanya: "I have three suspects of who might've hired those hitmen in the black car to kill Carl, and maybe to kill David Rose Flanders: David Roseblatt, Carla Rose, and Carl's wife Wanda."

She'd said the words for dramatic effect, but I didn't even blink an eyelash. She looked disappointed as she continued: "Martha's revised time of death puts Carla even closer to being involved. And for motive, she and David might've argued. He might've wanted to come clean about everything, and she thought she had to stop him."

I said "I'd tend to think exactly the opposite: she wanted to come correct, and he knew it'd expose him being wanted for skipping child support. But I get the gist of your idea: they argued, and he's the one that came over all dead. So what motive would Wanda have for having David killed?"

Tanya said "My only idea is that she didn't want him exposing the Babymaker ring, and thought he was going to. But there's just too many people that know and can talk. So I don't know. Anyhoo, as you like to say, I think the motive for either Carla or Wanda having Carl killed is jealousy.

Tanya: "Watching Carl and Carla, it sure looked to me like she was in love with him, or damn near close to it, and maybe he refused to leave Wanda for her. And the flip side of that... Wanda sees the tape of Carl and Carla, realizes that Carl is into Carla a lot more than he should be, she gets jealous, maybe thinks Carl is going to leave her, so she has him killed."

Tanya: "And ditto that for Roseblatt. His wife told him she was pregnant, he was angry because he knew it wasn't him that impregnated her, and he somehow found out it was Carl, and went after Carl. Same motive: jealousy."

I said "So how did he find out so quickly it was Carl?"

Tanya said "He may have forced it out of Carla, and she just hasn't admitted it. Yes, I know there are tremendous holes in all of this, but that's what my first instinct has been."

I nodded. "That's really outstanding thinking, there. And I do agree with one aspect of it... the powerful motive of jealousy... the motive for the Original Crime, Cain killing Abel, and for many crimes since. So yes, you've still got it, as far as being a Detective."

Tanya blushed and grinned, then I changed the subject and said: "Tell me, Tanya. Do you miss the days you were a Detective in MCD?"

Tanya's cherubic face turned melancholy as she said "Sir... I try not to look back and say 'what if', and I'll never regret losing my legs to save my son's life. But yeah, those were really good days when I was in MCD, before you were there and especially after you came in. So I won't say I (air quotes) 'miss' those days, but they were fun."

I nodded, and Tanya said "What about you, sir? Do you miss those days?"

I said "To be candidly honest, I'm glad I'm where I am now. I can still be a Detective and I'm in charge, which is where I want to be, where I'm meant to be. But one day they're going to force me to take the Chief's chair whenever Chief Moynahan leaves, hopefully by retirement after many, many more years of service. And then I'll be promoted past my ability to be a Detective out in the field."

I went on: "I'll do the job, I'll lead this Police Department that I love... but I will be replaced as the best Detective on this Police Force, and as the Iron Crowbar. And I will miss these days."

Tanya nodded. "And it's going to happen to me, too. Isn't it, sir?..."

Part 24 - The Babymakers

3:00pm. Mary Milton came into my office with a report: "We've got the six guys identified, as well as two men that once were part of it but were taken off the lists."

"So, who are they?" I asked.

Mary gave me their names. "The two men taken off the list are married now. Carl is deceased, of course. Three others are University graduates, and two are still students, one a grad student; the other, an undergrad. The grad student, Peter, is one of your wife's students, and is taking one of her classes this semester, so it may be best if you don't personally interview him."

"Yet he's the sexual psychology major and might know more about this ring than any others." I lamented. "Oh well, it is what it is. Lieutenant, left to your own devices, what would your plan be for interviewing these guys?"

"They're suspects, sir." said Mary. "I really can't see any other way but bringing them into the Station, reading them their rights, giving them lawyers if they want a lawyer, and question them if they don't invoke and until they invoke... which I believe they will do."

"You start hauling them in," I said, "and the Press is likely going to find out about it. Also, I doubt all of them are guilty of implication in either murder. So you arrest those older guys, who left the ring before marrying their now-wives, but their wives now find out about what they'd been doing, and leave and divorce them. They're innocent, but the Police will have just destroyed their lives unnecessarily, and Bettina will be yelling about it on the air for weeks."

"I understand the dilemma, sir," said Mary, "but I don't have another answer, except to ask what you're going to do, sir."

I smiled at that very insightful reply. "If you think about it, Mary, we don't need all of them, not just yet. We need one or two, and then we can bring in more and more of them... or go to them and interview them... to corroborate the stories. So! Which ones can we legitimately pressure to to talk?"

"Oh, I get it." said Mary. "The married men."

I nodded. "And also the college students; we can tell them they'll be expelled from School when the shit hits the fan and all this goes Public..."

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

5:00pm, Friday, October 2nd. I went into Classroom 'E'. In the room were Detectives Roark Coleman, George Newman, Teddy Parker, Julia Rodriguez, Theo Washington and Joan Laurer. Also in the room were Lieutenants Jerome Davis and Mary Milton.

Jerome Davis said "Sir, we've interviewed six of the eight men we know to be in the Babymaker Club, as they themselves call it. Two of them, the single men that had graduated from School, were not at their homes nor businesses, and nobody seemed to know where they are."

"Okay, show me what you do have." I said. Mary Milton began showing the videos of the interviews.

It started with Peter, the black-haired guy who was one of Laura's students. He looked like Rudistan in that he seemed to want to break out into a grin and start cracking jokes... and that he knew it was serious, this time.

"Yeah, I was part of the Babymaker Club." Peter was saying on the video. "I was doing it for research, for part of my thesis, which I'm going to have to start on very soon."

"You were impregnating women, for research?" Joanne Warner was replying, letting her emotions overcome her professionalism. "These are babies we're talking about, here."

"Yeah, which is why we only accepted married women for it." Peter said. "So we'd know the babies would be in good homes, and cared for."

"How did you become a part of this club?" Julia Rodriguez asked Peter.

"I was invited in." said Peter. "By a guy named Carl. Blonde guy, fit, athletic type. He said he worked at a gym. I was in the University cafeteria and he just came up and sat down next to me, and we had a conversation about it. It sounded perfect for my thesis, so I said I'd give it a try. He put me on the Facebook page, and things worked out well."

Next was one of the relatively older, married men: "Yeah, a guy named Carl was talking to me at a bar. It must've been a year ago. I wasn't engaged to my now-wife yet, so I thought it'd be a good chance to hook up with some women. And I did. Yeah, we got paid, and if you really want to waste time and money prosecuting me for a Class E felony that I don't think should even be a crime? Yeah, go for it. Anyway, I got out of it when I asked my girlfriend to marry me..."

Another man was a University Law School graduate. "I know what this is about. That guy Carl, who died last Monday, he recruited me into the Babymakers. Last September or so. All I know is that he put me on the list, I got contacts from four married women, and we met for sex. Every one of them brought their husbands with them. It was kind of weird 'performing' in front of an audience, but I got used to it. Made me much better in Court when all eyes were on me during a trial, too. I got out a week before I got married, and committed myself to my wife..."

After watching the rest of the videos, I said "So every single one of them said that Carl was the one that brought them in."

Julia Rodriguez said "I even asked them how that could be, when Carl himself didn't get in until months later. They each just said he didn't know anything about the other guys in the group nor what their exploits were. And some of them said they didn't know for sure that Carl was one of the studs, only that he was the one that brought him in."

"So they were coached." I lamented. "Someone knew who they all were, contacted them, and got them all on the same page vis-à-vis their stories. Carl's dead, so we can never verify it as long as they all stick to their recited lines. Okay, did you let them all go?"

Jerome Davis said "We gave them the standard 'don't leave the County without informing the Police'. But we've filed no charges yet."

"Okay, any other new data that I need to be made aware of before we go do traffic duty for this weekend's home game?" I asked.

"Three items, sir." said Lt. Mary Milton. "First, David Roseblatt, Carla's real husband, was an Army Reserve Officer, commissioned through Eastern State Army ROTC. He did a three year active-duty stint before founding the Rose Advertising Firm, and remained in the Reserves for several years. His father is now-retired Major General Wyatt Roseblatt. The son was a Captain in the Reserves, but his Active Duty and Reserve OERs (Officer Evaluation Reports) are sealed, as are his medical records."

"Hmmm." I said. "Interesting. So I take it he took physicals, gave blood, all that?"

"He's Airborne qualified, sir." said Mary. "And as you know, sir, they do extra bloodwork in the physicals for those going to Airborne School. So yes. But like I said, the actual records are sealed, and unnaturally so."

"Meaning his father the General had them sealed. That's instructive." I said. "Okay, what's next?"

Mary: "David Flanders, a.k.a. Rose, began working for the City office of the Rose Advertising Firm six months after it started up, as a systems technician working on their computers, installing software, setting up employees's accounts, and all that. He lived across the State Line from the City. When he fled to avoid the alimony trial and came to our Town & County, it looks like the employee records were changed to reflect his new name and a new start date, but he kept the same employee number."

Mary: "And third, I checked up on the Flanders family, the one David skipped out on. She has not remarried, and she's done pretty well for herself. She has a job with BigWirelessCorp in Sparta, where Eastern State is, in their filing department."