The Babymaker Ch. 05

Laura; "I have filed a civil lawsuit against Carmela for Slander and Defamation of Character, as he is repeatedly making these allegations, which are always false, with the purpose and intent of causing me material harm. Furthermore, I have filed a criminal Slander complaint with the Campus Police and the SBI against Carmela, so that the State can strip Carmela of his tenure, and he can be fired for cause."

Peter came up and said "Please raise your hands and be civil, and you'll be brought a microphone so that you can ask questions. Ms. Wurtzburg?"

"Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News." said Bettina Wurtzburg. "Dr. Fredricson, Channel Two News has confirmed the existence of the so-called 'Babymaker Ring' of young men who impregnated married women by the natural method in exchange for money. Will you confirm that those men had virility tests done by you, and the women had gynecological exams by you, by releasing your appointment calendar to the Ethics Board and the SBI?"

"You're trying to do to me what you did to Town Fitness Centers." Laura replied witheringly. "You're hoping I'll say that my medical appointments are covered by doctor-client privilege, especially those involving my capacity as a psychiatrist, and then you'll go twisting that to make it sound like I'm trying to hide something."

The undercurrent of the ugliness of the Press began rising as Laura continued: "What I will say is that I'm the chief gynecologist on Staff at University Hospital, that I have dozens... hundreds... of appointments with women from pre-pregnancy through pregnancy to the birth of the child and post-natal care. Do you know what I was doing when terrorists blew up University Hospital? I was delivering a baby." (Author's note: 'Only Time'.)

Laura's eyes swept over the Enemy as she said authoritatively: "I'm a gynecologist, gynecology is what I do! And I don't sit there and ask who the woman intends to be impregnated by. Furthermore, I am often consulted by couples trying to get pregnant, and I not only work with the woman to ensure she is ready and able to have a child, but also with the man, to ensure that he is virile and can father the child. I've had dozens of virility tests done... including on my own husband! He obviously passed."

A few people noticed that Teresa was covering her mouth to keep her laughter from being heard throughout the room, and that Seth and Dr. Wellman had grinned and chuckled at that. The rabid reporters of the Press were not nearly as amused as the Iron Wolf. None of them laughed, and many of their faces got even uglier looks, if that were possible.

Laura finished up: "So I don't know anything about this ring you're talking about, and this is just Carmela's attempt to make something normal and innocent sound dirty and criminal, which you KXTC reporters are very experienced at doing, aren't you, Bettina?"

The microphone was passed. "Rosie Berkmar of the SNN Networks and the 'Point Taken' program." said Rosie. "Dr. Fredricson, where is your husband? What is he trying to hide by not being here or at Police Headquarters, to answer our questions? Why isn't he here defending you?"

Laura said "That question perfectly shows the hypocrisy of the corrupt Media. You jerks of the Press, particularly you women on 'Point Taken', are always whining about women's rights, and women's empowerment, and women's independence from men... yet you stand there asking why my husband is not here, as if you think he has to be here, and that I'm helpless to protect myself without him here? You got another think coming on that, Ms. Berkmar. Take your hypocrisy back to your low-rated program."

"Pat Stellum, KXTC News!" said Pat Stellum as he all but jerked the microphone out of Rosie's hand. "Dr. Fredricson, why are you so hostile to the Press, especially when you need our help in the Court of Public Opinion in this critical time for you?" There were murmurs of agreement, and some 'Yeah yeah' comments, as if it were the British House of Commons.

Laura said "Partly because of your unbelievable arrogance in asking that question, even though you apparently do believe it. And maybe because your network did everything it could this morning to make people think I'm guilty of crimes, and you personally, Mr. Stellum, did all you could to smear the TCPD and Town Fitness Centers, both dishonestly and unfairly. So I'm expecting neither honesty nor help from you rabid dogs of the corrupt Press..."

Part 28 - Light on the Path

And where was Your Friendly Neighborhood Iron Crowbar during those Press Conferences? Doing what I love to do: making successful arrests.

The Town & County's Black Community is mostly on the southside of Town, from the Southwestern Ghetto east towards University Avenue and the Coltrane County Highway that goes south from it, towards where T-Square's clubs are. The Hispanic Community is in smaller clusters, the main one being south of Junction Station, near Hotel Row, running a thin line west along the edges of the southside farmlands and around the southwestern curve of town, outside the Southwestern Ghetto and the train tracks; and also beginning to grow on the northwest side of Town, across the River from the back side of Ronald Reagan Park and the Disc Golf course there."

On the southside, there was a seedy bar near a collection of businesses in strip malls with both English and Spanish signs. It was said to be the Latino equivalent of the Block House. But unlike the Block House, which was damned hard to approach without being seen, there were ways to get to the Hispanic bar.

There was a stage in back where women worked the poles and performed their strip shows, but there was no one performing this time of morning. Still, the bar was half-full, with some of the men working afternoon or night shifts, and it felt like night with the lack of light from any windows.

Two very swarthy, rough looking men were at a back table, when a shadowy figure approached them. "Carlos Madura?" they heard.

"Who wants to know?" one of the men said menacingly as he turned to look over his shoulder. I took my crowbar out of my trenchcoat and displayed it. Beats a calling card, dontcha know.

"I do." I said. The two men went for their hips and the guns holstered on them. They were not fast enough. Powerful Police handguns were in their earholes.

I turned as most of the others in the room came to their feet, facing the four TCPD Officers in the room (including me). "Kalsu, would you translate this?" I asked. I then said loudly. "We are videotaping this! If you want to be on Candid Camera, just smile! If not, turn around." Kalsu translated. Most of the others turned their backs to us.

"What do you want here, Iron Crowbar?" asked the Rodrigo-san. No, he wasn't afraid of us. But in a rare occurrence in this County, I was not afraid of him either, and he knew it. "What are you arresting them for?"

"Murder in the first." I said.

The Rodrigo-san turned around and said "That Iron Crowbar is loco. Just let him get out of here." We had no more trouble after that, though I kept careful watch in case somebody got stupid and tried to pull a weapon on us.

We arrested and frisked Madura and his cohort, and the cameraman taped Daniel Patrick removing his keys from his pocket. "Let's take them out back." I said, going out the way we came in. I brought up the rear, keeping my eyes on everyone. "Y'all have a good day." I said before hastening out the back door and shutting it.

In the parking lot, I made sure I was being taped. "Okay, I'm pressing the lock button... why, Madura! That black muscle car just beeped. Is that your car, Madura?" Madura said some words in Spanish that I regret to say that I did understand... and can't repeat here.

"Same car tag as the car that ran Ryder off the road." Daniel Patrick said.

"I am soooo insulted, Madura." I said. "You commit murder in my County, then disrespect me by not leaving? You'll regret that. Okay, Kalsu, drive that car to County Jail. We'll bring its owner and his fellow cabron there, and run them through Booking, since all the Press in the State is at Police Headquarters right now....

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

I came into Interrogation-1 at County Jail with Robert Kalsu, who spoke good Spanish... which caused me to inwardly wonder if he'd been a lot more than an Army Ranger while in military service. But I digress...

Yep, at first Madura tried to pretend he didn't know English. Kalsu hit him with a spate of Spanish, then I held up the red crowbar and said "I'll bet you'd speak a lot more English with a crowbar shoved up your ass." Kalsu did not need to translate that.

"What do you want, cabron? Madura asked sullenly.

"The real question is 'What are you willing to tell me?'." I said. "Let me paint the picture for you, Madura. We have video of your car at the scene where Carl Ryder's car was run off the Bypass. Your black muscle car, the one that beeped when the key fob button we took from your pocket was pressed. And your fingerprints are all over it, so we know it's yours."

"We also have your car turning into the parking lot behind David Rose's brownstone the night before he died." I said. "Our Crime Lab team is going through that car with a fine-toothed comb right now. If we find one hair, one smear of blood... and I'm betting we will... and if it types to the second murder victim, David Rose, then it's 'ovah' for you, Madura. Multiple murders equals death penalty."

I continued: "Now your buddy in there, the one that drove the car and ran Carl Ryder off the road, and drove and parked the car to that Downtown brownstone where David Rose lived... we're going to be offering him a deal. And if he talks before you do, there's not much left for you but Death Row at Jacksonville State Prison... oh yes." I said seeing his reaction.

"Yes," I said, "Jacksonville is a weird place. The White Roots nuts and the Black Power nuts hate each other, but for some strange reason they hate Hispanics even more. They'll even work together to kidnap Latino men from their cells, take them someplace the guards won't go to, then they rip those Latinos a new asshole, and spend hours gang-raping his old asshole. The lucky ones bleed out. The unlucky ones get their eyes gouged out."

"But you don't have to go there and endure that." I said. "My deal is simple. You get to choose which maximum security prison you go to. You get keepaway status while you serve your 25-to-life term, with a good chance of parole after 20 years. You don't take the deal, then you're looking at life without parole at Jacksonville... and a short life it will be."

"What do you want?" Madura asked, in English.

"Who hired you, Madura?" I asked. "Who paid you to kill those men? The guy at the top, not the lackey intermediate that was shitting his pants because he was so frightened of you. I want the guy at the top." Madura's eyes widened at my description of the intermediate, since my wild-ass guess was true.

He said something in rapid Spanish, which Kalsu translated: "If I talk, your deal will be for nothing. This man has powerful friends, powerful enough to get to me in prison. He will have me killed."

"You underestimate me." I replied. "Why don't you ask Mitt Willis, Edward and Peter Blassingame, and the Superior Bloodlines boys how well they did when they came up against me. The Swamp Frogs are nothing to me, so trust me on this. You're definitely going to die, and quite badly, if you walk away from me and they get to you."

"Okay. I'll take it." Madura said.

I took out my Police iPhone, and showed Madura a photo. "Is this the guy who hired you?" I asked.

"Si." said Madura...

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

After the Press Conference, Teresa moseyed over to the State Crime Lab building and procured the black SBI SUV for me, which was armored almost as well as our TCPD SUVs. She drove up to The Cabin and picked me up, then went over the hill and through the woods (sort of) to Reservoir Road, then east along the University-City Highway. As soon as we crossed the line into Nextdoor County, I logged in as the SBI Reserve Inspector.

As she drove, Teresa recounted the details of Laura's Press Conference. "It was packed, but about half the people there didn't even try to ask questions, and I'd never seen them before at a Press Conference. I really wondered if they really were reporters, and we were watching them closely in case there was an assassin in their midst."

I said "The Chief and Cindy told me that the Presser at Headquarters was packed to standing-room-only. I'm wondering if Carmela had people go pack both Pressers with fake reporters, maybe to intimidate us."

Teresa scowled. "Does that fat bastard really think he's going to intimidate us with shit tactics like that?"

"Not so much us, but University President Wellman." I said. "Carmela is going after Laura, but it's just as much to rid Wellman of an ally as it is to get my wife and therefore me. From what I'm hearing, Carmela has been moving to pack the Faculty Ethics Panel with people in jackbooted lockstep with his Socialist views. And him and his cohorts on any ethics panel is not unlike nations like Syria, Iran, and Venezuela being on the United Nations Human Rights Council."

Teresa said "I'm a little surprised you're riding to the City with me, rather than being there helping Laura, no matter what Rosie Berkmar says."

I whimpered a laugh, then said "No, Laura can take care of herself. And on this one, she'll have to. I can only help her so much. And my job right now is to avenge the deaths of Carl Ryder and David Rose, a.k.a. Flanders, and put the man who ordered their deaths in prison, preferrably on Death Row."

Teresa said "So you called Norm Chow to meet us and help make this arrest?"

"Yes.:" I replied. "There are going to be issues with me not being recused, so having Norm's help will be necessary. And City Detectives Sapper Warren and E.J. Jefferson will be there, as well."

"I'm looking forward to this one." Teresa said. "And I can't wait to hear how you've figured it out."

"Team effort." I replied. "But I did learn a few things about our Detective Corps. We do not have anyone... anyone... who can do interviews to the standard I need to see to bring home cases like these..."

We arrived at City Police Headquarters, where we met Chow, Warren and Jefferson. I briefed everyone on our plan, we outfitted ourselves with earbuds, and we headed out.

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

We blew past the receptionist in the front hallway and up the stairs to the top (4th) floor. When we got to the executive suite, we found the door locked. Jefferson was about to knock, but I said "No, let me give them my calling card." I applied the red crowbar, which didn't fully open it, but a kick by Norm Chow to the door blew it on open.

"Stop! You can't go in there!" the assistant tried as we went for the door of one of the offices. I put my badge right in her face.

"You try to stop us, and it's ten years in prison for you.' I snarled. "Ten years!" The others had their guns drawn, and Chow knocked on the door then loudly shouted "SBI! Open up!" He tried the door; it was locked. "Want to try your crowbar, Commander?" he asked.

"Sure." I said. "But I'm halfway expecting to get shot at." Nevertheless, I jimmied my crowbar into the crack between the doors and applied leverage. Sapper Warren came forward and kicked the door hard, and it flew open. Norm Chow and E.J. Jefferson poured into the office, guns drawn and raised.

"Clear!" said Chow after checking the executive washroom. "No one here, Commander."

"He went out the back door." I said. Jefferson and Warren hurried to beat me to the stairs. Norm Chow remained behind, calling for reinforcements and CSIs to secure and go through the office...

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

He fled rapidly down the stairs. Once on ground level, he flew out a metal back door... and almost right into the business end of a powerful Police handgun.

"Going somewhere... David Roseblatt?" said Teresa Croyle as she pointed her gun right between Roseblatt's eyes. Six uniformed City Police Officers were behind her in a semi-circle.

Roseblatt did not reply, but dived to his right and tried to grab Teresa's wrist and the gun from her hand. It was a poor decision, and an even worse attempt. The two-time Police Boxing Matches Champion was already reacting to Roseblatt's move before he could grab her wrist. He found his own wrist grabbed and his arm twisted behind him as his chest and face were slammed into the ground.

A second later, Jefferson and Warren came out the door. "Whoa, we're Police!" Jefferson said as the uniformed Officers brought their guns to bear, but quickly lowered them. As I came to the door, I saw that Teresa was affixing handcuffs to a still-struggling David Roseblatt, who was yelling that he wanted an attorney.

"Oh, you'll get your attorney." I said. "You can call one from Town & County Police Headquarters, after we take you through Booking there..."

Part 29 - The Solution

1:30pm, Monday, October 5th. I came into Interrogation-1 at Police Headquarters with Detective Julia Rodriguez. Corporal Hicks was the Uniformed Presence. Sitting at the table, handcuffed to the ring, was David Roseblatt. Next to him was his attorney, Nathan Masterson of Gresham & Mason, P.C.

The Monitor Room was chock-full of TCPD Captains and above. The rest of the Detectives were watching the feed in Classroom 'E'. Julia and I had earbuds in our ears, so we could hear what was said into the desk microphone of the Monitor Room by Commander Cindy Ross, Lt. Commander Teresa Croyle, and Captain Tanya Muscone. My three Angels.

"Well, if it ain't Commander Troy, the Kike with the Krowbar." Masterson said loudly as Julia and I sat down.

"You can be disbarred for that." Julia said.

"Bring it on, Spic." Masterson snarled. "I can call you whatever I want and I won't be disbarred, especially if it's to and about this Bar Code here. And speaking of Troy, why aren't you trying to cover up your wife's crimes instead of harassing my innocent client here, huh? She's going to lose her license far earlier than I'll ever lose mine."

Roseblatt laughed out loud. He was stocky but in deceptively good shape, not unlike Rudistan, and he had something between a perma-smile and a perma-sneer on his face and a jovial attitude, again somewhat like Rudistan. But where he differed from Rudistan was in his full head of very black hair, and an undercurrent of sinister arrogance that I couldn't wait to annihilate. He was the typical holier-than-thou Frat Boy typical of the Tau Fraternity and the Establishment Elites. I despised him already.

I read Roseblatt his considerable rights from the card, then asked if he understood the rights. He looked at me as if I was some sort of disgusting insect to be toyed with then killed. Masterson said "He knows the rights. Get on with it, Bar Code. What are you charging my client with?"

"Two counts of conspiracy to commit first degree murder." I replied. "The murders of David Rose and Carl Ryder, two human beings."

"Unlike you, Troy." Masterson said. "You're not a human being, you're a Jew."

"Keep it up, Jew-Hater." I said. "But I'll ignore your attempt to distract me... for now. While there are other people and cameras here. In the meantime, are you going to continue practicing your neo-Nazi slurs, or are you going to actually do some work and represent your client here? And he very badly needs representing." Masterson finally stopped spewing verbal diarrhea from his potty mouth.

"Soooo, Mr. Roseblatt," I said, "As I'm sure you've figured out, I am Commander Troy of the TCPD, and this is Detective Rodriguez. And as I said, you are being charged with numerous crimes, the worst being two counts of conspiracy to commit murder. We've also added the attempt to flee when we came to arrest you, and assault upon a Police Officer... who took you down rather efficiently, I might add."