The Babymaker Ch. 05

Roseblatt was not smiling. "You'll never prove any of that." he said. "You're full of------"

Masterson leaned over and whispered something to him, then Masterson said "My client was in the City when both murders occurred. You should be spending your time finding the people who actually did commit the murders, instead of harassing my client, who is an upstanding business man that works with some of the greatest companies in the world."

"Oh yeah, that." I said as I put some papers on the table. "We've got the guys your client hired. They turned. We've got the middleman, who was literally shaking with fright at the prospect of getting his anal cherry popped in 'gen pop' in prison. He's getting keepaway status, so he turned. My Officers, the SBI, and the FBI all have good financial forensics people, and we've got a rock-solid paper trail of that $150,000 your client paid from a slush fund account."

"You better have real good warrants for all that." Masterson said, his voice getting menacing... and concerned.

"These warrants?" I said, ;putting the documents on the table. "Warrants for your client's personal finances, his company's finances, his car's GPS data, his cellphone data, and most of all... Federal warrants to obtain his military records and their DNA profile of him."

Roseblatt looked shocked for the first time. Masterson was looking at the warrants, then said: "DNA evidence? How in the hell did you get that from the military? It's sealed. All of my clients military records were sealed by a General Officer."

"Interesting that you know that, Jew Hater." I said. "But that was easily enough to get with a Federal warrant. You see, your client's daddy is a retired two-star General, but I have friends, too... a four-star Army General and a Marine General, whose first name is 'Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff'." Roseblatt looked shocked, then sick to his stomach when I said that.

"You still have no case, spite of your prodigious power of bluff." Masterson said, but the fear in his voice could not be hidden.

"Yeah." said David Roseblatt, his voice goading. "I'm looking forward to humiliating you at trial."

"Vee shall seee whoo is humil-i-atedddd." I replied. "But just so you understand... why don't I tell you everything, and you just correct me where I go astray, okay?"

I heard Cindy say "Oh yeahhhhh." into the microphone in the Monitor Room. I heard later that she and Tanya were high-fiving.

I began: "Even though your daddy was ultimately a two-star general, your application to West Point was denied. Seems you had a couple of incidents in high school for bullying, which would have been assault and battery if you'd done that in my County. So you went into Army ROTC at Eastern State. You made it, and you were commissioned... barely. More fighting incidents, including a barroom brawl with your fellow Cadet Rangers... not the first time I've heard of that, either."

Your Iron Crowbar: "While in a Field Artillery unit in Germany, your superior Officers covered for you when you had several incidents, including a DUI that was buried. But you finally ran into trouble for bullying your unit's Chemical Officer, a Second Lieutenant at the time... which again was actually an assault."

Your Iron Crowbar: "The Chemical Officer went to the IG when the Battalion Commander got the charges with the M.P.s dropped, and anonymous death threats to the Lieutenant were made. To your bad luck, it reached the ears of a Lieutenant Colonel Carl Just, who had been a Chemical Officer himself, and worked directly for a two-star General." (Author's note: 'The Nuclear Option' for more on Carl Just.)

"He was just a Chemical Corps pussy!" Roseblatt growled, about his fellow Lieutenant at the time. "He wasn't even in the Combat Arms. And he was a fucking Leg, like you losers are."

"You're crossing the line, now." I said menacingly. "I'm not a Leg. I've got seventeen jumps, twelve more than you, Mister Five-Jump Chump." That made Julia laugh. "And the Combat Arms are overrated, except for the Infantry. I'm not impressed."

"And what were you in?" Roseblatt sneered. "Finance Corps? Transportation?"

"Try 'Military Police'." I replied. "But we were talking about you, not me." I resumed my narrative: "You were promoted to Captain anyway, but your father was going to retire, so you had to accept being kicked back into the Reserves. Not just because of the assault case and the buried DUI, but because you got '3's (out of 5) on your EEO portion of your OERs (Officer Evaluation Reports)."

Me: "Turns out that calling blacks the n-word didn't go over well with your FIST Team leader, a Major with courage and integrity, who was not cowed by your father. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel 'below the zone', meaning he was considered to be one of the very best. You, on the other hand... not so much."

"What does this have to do with the price of tea in China, Bar Code?" Masterson said witheringly, obviously trying to distract me with the epithet. I was not swayed, at least not yet.

"Oh, I'm showing that." I said. "And the ADA will be showing it, too, at your trial, Roseblatt. So! Once you were processed out of active duty in the Military at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, you started your Advertising Firm, and worked to get in with the Big Boys, whom you knew through your Tau Fraternity contacts in School. It was slow going, but you were making money."

Your Iron Crowbar: "You also shortened your name from 'Roseblatt' to 'Rose'. In the military, it served you well to keep the Jewish name, as your father was a Major General. But once you were out, and wanted to get in with the Republican Establishment Elitists, you had to make that name change, so you did. And yes, it sounds better as the name of your advertising firm."

Your Iron Crowbar: "And that brings us to David Flanders and Carla Ramirez. I'll tell the Carla story first. When you met her, you were totally smitten. You began dating her, showered her with expensive gifts, and she held you off for a while but finally accepted your proposal of marriage. She was actually good at advertising, and at bringing in clients, so you made her a partner in your Firm, as well."

Your Iron Crowbar: "But trouble soon developed. According to Carla's sworn statement, as well as medical records, your penis is only three inches in length when hard, and due to medical issues you have trouble getting it up."

Julia laughed, then said snottily "That won't get it done in the Combat Arms." I couldn't help but burst out laughing. Roseblatt was furious with anger, and his beet-red face showed it.

"Stop harassing my client, Cunt." Masterson said.

"Ignore the Nazi." I told Julia., then went on: "But apparently Carla Rose agreed with Detective Rodriguez's evaluation of your performance capabilities, Mr. Roseblatt. She was bored, and she craved good sex with real men. She also began to fear you, as you began showing your violent side, especially when you thought you were losing her affection."

Me: "Carla moved out of your City condo and to my Town & County here. She had procured the BigPharmaCorp advertising contract that had eluded you, by having a sexual relationship with their CEO, the late Donovan Donolan. He and his wife, may they rest in peace, were swingers like Carla was. But that was her excuse to move; her real reason was to get away from you. You were essentially separated."

Me: "Carla wanted to go to clubs to socialize, and also to find well-endowed men for sex. But she need a partner for that, and that's where David Flanders comes in. He was on the run, having skipped out of child support payments for kids that were not his biological progeny. She brought him into the Rose Advertising Firm, and he lived in her spare bedroom at Tower Condos. And she basically gave him your history as a backstop."

Me: "And it worked. Carla got to have sex with desirable men, and David got to masturbate as he watched Carla have sex with other, better men. And David and Carla were friends, and could socialize with others. But that came apart when you found out two things: Carla was intending to divorce you, and she was intending to be impregnated by another man."

"And how did he find that out?" sneered Masterson. He was trying, I thought to myself. He was trying.

"Well that's simple and obvious." I said. "David Flanders told him. David was already an employee of Rose Advertising Firm; in fact, Carla left his employee I.D. intact, and he didn't work at the Town & County branch office, so they didn't know. And that leads to what Roseblatt here didn't want We the Police to find out: he and David Flanders already knew each other."

Me: "And what's more... it's an amazing coincidence that Carla just happened to meet David Flanders, and that it was such an ideal arrangement for her and for him. But now we have just too many coincidences for Dame Agatha Christie's liking, nor mine. What happened is that David Roseblatt here knew that David Flanders was on the run... so you, Mr. Roseblatt, ordered David to meet Carla and get into her good graces, and eventually move in with her... to spy on her."

Your Iron Crowbar: "And how did you do that? Well, it goes like this: before David got that cushy situation watching the extraordinarily beautiful Carla Rose having sex with handsome men, and getting to perform oral sex on her and occasionally have intercourse with her himself, he had another situation... where he masturbated while he watched his wife, Mrs. Flanders having sex. And one of her Bulls that the Stag watched her have unprotected sex with... was you, Mr. Roseblatt."

"You'll never prove that." snarled Masterson.

"Won't I." I said. "The FBI is interviewing Mrs. Flanders in Acropolis City even as we speak. But I didn't even need that. You seem to have not figured it out yet, Masterson, unless Roseblatt told you, that there was a huge reason Roseblatt's military medical records were sealed... to keep his DNA profile with them from being able to be accessed. And the reason they so desperately wanted to stop that, is because you, Roseblatt, are the biological father of Mrs. Flanders's children!"

I'm told that Classroom 'E' erupted as the puzzle pieces fell into place. I continued with my narrative:

"Yes, once I got that DNA profile, and with Mrs. Flanders and her children's profiles on record with the State... because David had demanded a paternity test as part of the alimony and child support case, and one was made... all I had to do was plug the DNA profile data into our application to compare for matches. Yes, I'm sure there will be another test to confirm it, but there's no doubt you are the baby-daddy of her children."

Your Iron Crowbar: "And that's one reason you had your vasectomy, Mr. Roseblatt. You didn't want nor need any 'bimbo eruptions' as your business was growing and becoming more successful."

Your Iron Crowbar: "So there's that connection, and how you knew David and could blackmail him into spying on Carla for you. When Carla actually gave you sex twice in a month's time, Roseblatt, you called David for a report... and he told you that Carla was trying to get pregnant by another man."

"You went berserk over that." I said. "You saw 'Field Artillery' red behind your eyes. You were still obsessed with your wife, and had tried to woo her back for years. And now Carl Ryder was the rooster in your henhouse, inseminating your wife. So you began arranging the hit on your wife's young lover after finding out from David that Carla had hooked up with Carl in mid-September."

Your Iron Crowbar: "The wheels were put in motion before you found out that Carla had indeed been impregnated by her virile young stud. And when Carla told you that she was pregnant, you knew what she didn't: that you had had that vasectomy. You became enraged when she told you, and you physically assaulted her. You hit her in the face. In the brief interval that your shock and realization that you'd fucked up immobilized you, she got up and ran away from you."

Me: "But the hit you'd ordered was still in motion... and was carried out. Carl was run off the road and shot. You knew from David that Carl taped his sexual liaisons, so you'd ordered that the tapes be found. The killer missed finding them in the vehicle; after all, neither you nor they knew that Carl was returning to the gym from a sexual liaison with another woman. The plan was to invade his home and find them... but to no avail. But We the Police did find them."

"Too bad for your wife." muttered Masterson, showing me he knew far more about that connection than he legitimately should. I put that into its compartment of the mind and hurled on:

"With Carl's death, Mr. Roseblatt, you had to lay low." I said. "But as your Swamp Frog buddies began seeing that I was putting it all together, they let you know that you had a loose end... David Flanders. You likely were already planning for his death, as the amount of the payment to the killers shows, but what you didn't know is that We the Police were already aware of who he really was, because Detective Rodriguez here had already interviewed him... and because we had his DNA from that paternity test. Oh yeah, that one is really coming back to bite you, isn't it?"

"Anyhoo," I said. "cutting off his hands and pulling his teeth did not delay us at all in identifying him, and it also moved us closer and closer to Carla, and ultimately to you. So... will it hold?"

"Don't say a word." Masterson said to Roseblatt. "All we've heard is the ravings of a kike madman, and he and his nigger ADA will never get a conviction based upon his fantasies."

"I need to speak with my attorney privately." said Roseblatt. Julia and I got up and left through the anteroom door, then Hicks went through the jail side door and waited outside.

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

Cindy Ross came out of the Monitor Room as if fired from a missile silo, and met us in the hallway. "Oh. My. God!" she exclaimed as she hugged me unusually hard. "You did it! You got the bastard!"

"I've seen you do that so many times," said Tanya, as she hugged me after Cindy finally let go, "but I never get used to it."

"Think he'll confess?" Teresa asked as we all walked and drove down the hallway towards MCD.

"If he knows what's good for him, he will." I said. "His use to the Big Boy Elites just ended. And you know what happens to people like that when their usefulness is ended."

All the Detectives were pouring out into the main hallway from the hallway to Classroom 'E'. They stopped and began giving me an ovation.

"Thanks, guys, but the work is not done yet." I said. "We've still got to wrap up------"

I stopped when I saw District Attorney Miriam Walters round the corner, accompanied by Chief Moynahan. "Well dunnnnn, Mr. Crowbarrrrrr! Welllll done!" the Chief said.

"Thank you, sir." I said. "And I'm glad you're here, Ms. Walters. Things moved fast and I didn't have time to talk to you nor Paulina yet."

"I understand." said Miriam. "I came over here for another reason. Imagine my surprise to find that you've already arrested the correct perp, and were interrogating him in your unique way."

"So what brought you here?" I asked.

"Let's go into the Conference Room." Miriam said.

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

"I received this package in the mail." said Miriam Walters. "It was checked for anthrax and the jump drive was checked for viruses, and it's clean."

The Chief, D.A. Walters, myself, Teresa Croyle, and Tanya Muscone were in the Main Conference Room. Miriam had received a large envelope package. I examined the label, seeing that there was no return address, and that it had been postmarked Friday.

Miriam said: "One of the jump drives is an analog video copied to digital format. It shows David Roseblatt having sex with a woman identified as Marge Flanders, David Flanders's ex-wife. The other, I'll play for you now." She plugged her laptop into the receptacle on the desk, and began playing the video.

An image of David Flanders came on the screen, sitting behind a desk, perhaps at the Rose Advertising Firm. "My name is David Rose. My real name is David Flanders. If you are watching this, then I am either missing or dead, probably murdered. And I likely was murdered by David Roseblatt, who has been blackmailing me for several years..."

As we watched, my Police iPhone rang. "Sir, this is Corporal Hicks." said Hicks. "Roseblatt's attorney just left, as in left the building. I looked in on Mr. Roseblatt, and he is asking for new legal representation."

"Let him use a phone to call someone." I said. After hanging up, I told the room what had happened, then said "I'm betting Roseblatt wants to negotiate a plea deal, and Masterson quit on him as a result. I'm glad you're here, Miriam. Roseblatt has shown some racist tendencies, so he may not talk to Paulina, but he may work with you..."

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

An hour later, District Attorney Miriam Walters and I went into I-1. H.J. Lynch of Chase, Lynch, and Berry was sitting with David Roseblatt.

"I've been briefed on the situation." said Lynch "My client wants a plea deal, in return for giving testimony against Ryder and Flanders's killers, the real killers."

"That's not a real offer." said Miriam. "Those two have already taken deals and turned on your client. Right now, I have little incentive to offer anything but life in prison without possibility of parole."

"He'll save you the expense of a trial." said Lynch. "And you get political credit for the win... and I'll remind you that you might need that, as a lot of People in this County are very bitter about your support of Breonna Bryant's persecution."

"All the more reason to stand fast on this." Miriam said. "Bryant was convicted by a Jury of her Peers, and correctly so."

"So you want to fight it out in a trial?" said Lynch. "The evidence is circumstantial. You also are basing it on the word of two dirtbags that would lie to save their own skins vs. a reputable citizen with no previous criminal record."

"That beat his wife." Miriam fired back. "A wife that will avenge that beating by testifying against him.

"And then there's Commander Troy's involvement." Lynch said, unperturbed. "He should've been recused from the start, and especially after his wife's involvement with Carl Ryder's male prostitution ring. We'll certainly be bringing that up as a reason for dismissal."

"Bring it on." said Miriam. "None of the reasons you state as grounds for recusal involve the actual murders. And it's not like Commander Troy was working on this by himself."

"And furthermore to this point," I said, "you better be sure when you're accusing my wife of a crime, as you just did. She can add you personally to her slander and defamation lawsuits and her criminal complaints. And then... you'll have me to deal with."

"Is that a threat? Are you threatening me?" Lynch growled harshly.

"That evaluation is for you to decide." I shot back. "Decide carefully."

"I'll tell you what I'll offer." Miriam said. "And it's my final offer, not the start of a negotiation. Twenty years for each murder conspiracy charge, served consecutively, along with the other stuff like resisting arrest and assaulting a Police Officer added to it. That's 40 years, with possibility of parole after 25 years served."

"You probably won't get that if you go to trial and get convicted." Lynch said to Roseblatt.

"Can you guarantee that?" Roseblatt asked back. When Lynch didn't answer, Roseblatt turned to D.A. Walters and said "I get keepaway status the entire sentence? I get protection while I'm inside? And something less than Jax State?"

"I can get you keepaway status." Miriam said. "But you don't get to choose your prison. It'll either be Jacksonville or Supermax."