The Ensigns of Detection Ch. 02

"We shall see." I said. "I only came here to have them tell me who they got that refined crystalline drug from." The lawyer showed a slight bit of surprise; the Douglases did not. They were well trained, very well trained, to not show emotion and give themselves away.

"You have got to be kidding." said the legal eagle, who was their mouthpiece as they'd taken the Fifth. "For all we know, your Officers planted that evidence."

"Make that accusation again," I said, "and we'll take it outside, you and I. And I won't spare the crowbar to spoil the unruly child lawyer."

Turning to the Douglases, I said a bit loudly: "So, guys, I guess you haven't heard... Dr. Laramie Wilkins is dead. Apparent suicide."

"So what?" asked the lawyer. But it was too late; I saw the flicker in James Douglas's eyes. Susan's had shown nothing. I suspected he was the brains of this outfit; his wife was rather dumb and just his helper. She was cute, though, I thought, and I'll bet she's good in bed.

"I would imagine..." I said, my eyes boring into James Douglas's, "that if Dr. Wilkins has been taken out, either by his own hand or someone else's... then what is the value of your lives to the people that had you take possession of that crystalline product?" Oh, no doubt about it now, I thought, seeing James Douglas process the information.

"Another of your tricks, Commander?" snarled the lawyer. "Trying to intimidate my clients?"

"Not at all." I said. "Just keeping them abreast of the tactical situation." I got up. "You guys have a nice day. And you can always find me through the Town & County Police Department, once you realize that I'm the only one that's going to help you when the balloon goes up and the chips are down."

With that, I left the room, followed by ADA Washington.

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

At 1:00pm, Classroom 'E' was the scene of a meeting. At the head of the table was Lt. Tanya Perlman. To her right was Data Branch Supervisor Myron Milton, and sitting next to him was Detective Joanne Cummings. To Tanya's left was Detective Martin Nash, and to his left was Detective Teddy Parker.

Sitting against the wall to Tanya's left were Police Chief Sean 'Cav' Moynahan and me, Your Iron Crowbar. We were 'unobtrusively' listening in, and the Chief had asked me to let Tanya lead the meeting. I had nooooo problems with that.

"Okay, Myron, what do you have?" Tanya asked.

"Dr. Laramie Wilkins was a Senior Vice President and had the title of Chief Research Officer of BigPharmaCorp. Dr. Robin Grayson is a Vice President and ran the research unit at the plant here in our County, and Dr. Wilkins oversaw that as well as at BigPharmaCorp's other plants around the nation. However, he based here, and rarely traveled to those other plants, as most of the cutting edge research was being done at the plant here."

Myron continued: "More to the man himself: he and his wife Abby were married for 35 years, first marriage for both. In those 35 years, the only debt of consequence was their house. From the day he was hired by BigPharmaCorp, Dr. Wilkins had a company car made available for his use, and he always bought cars for his wife with cash on the barrelhead. He had quite a bit of money, as he owned three chemical process patents over the years that he licensed to BigPharmaCorp, which paid him tremendous royalties. That money was invested very well over time, in addition to the stock options he received on BigPharmaCorp stock."

"Money problems are not a motive here, then." said Martin Nash.

"Unless his wife killed him for his money." replied Tanya, who then quickly added. "I only say that as a possibility; I'm not seeing anything to actually suggest it, and see many reasons against it. So, Myron, is there anything else you've been able to find? Cellphone records?"

"Yes ma'am." said Myron. "He had a cellphone provided by BigPharmaCorp, and almost every call on it was to or from other company cellphones. Most of them were from his research staff, including Dr. Robin Grayson, and a few to the executive leadership, such as Dr. Cubbard."

"What were the exceptions?" Tanya asked.

"His wife's cellphone." said Myron. "None to any other number. Now her cellphone was a bit more varied. She had a few friends in the wives of other BigPharmaCorp executives, and she was part of a group within First Baptist Church of ladies of her general age. They'd have movie nights or do a park cleanup project every once in a while, but that did not take up a lot of her time."

Myron continued: "There were other calls, such as to pizza places, the golf course pro shop, and every once in a while to the Men's Wearhouse at the Mall. In other words, he might've been using his wife's cellphone for those types of calls, if she wasn't making those herself."

"I'll ask about that when I interview her." said Joanne Cummings, making a note.

"Anything unusual on the cellphone records, Myron? Especially in the last few days?" asked Tanya. It is possible that her Police Commander had 'suggested' she ask a lot of questions about the cellphone records.

"I don't know about 'unusual', ma'am," said Myron, "but there was a spike in phone calls from Dr. Grayson a couple of weeks ago. And around the same time, Dr. Wilkins got several calls from a number that is assigned to BigPharmaCorp, but the phone appears to not be assigned to anyone."

"How did you get the information of phone assignments?" I asked Myron.

"We served a subpoena, sir, for the phones as well as an employee list." said Myron. "BigPharmaCorp is not being nearly as cooperative as they were during the Harmon Biller case (the Case of the Paper Trail). They refused to give us anything until Judge Watts called their legal office himself. I understand that it was a one-way conversation. Someone must've given the judge a crowbar or something." Everyone laughed at that.

"BigPharmaCorp is also trying to stop us from talking with their employees." said Joanne Cummings. "They won't permit us on their grounds unless we have a warrant, and their lawyers are demanding probable cause for any warrants."

"So why don't we have those warrants by now?" asked Chief Moynahan. "Don't tell me you haven't asked the D.A.'s office to get them for you."

"We've asked, sir," said Joanne, "but D.A. Krasney said he wants to work with the BigPharmaCorp people first, and see if he can get them to work with us in what he called a 'spirit of harmonious cooperation'."

"An elected official not wanting to offend a huge corporation with lots of money... a corporation with money to burn supporting candidates to oppose said elected official." I said. "Great."

Everyone was looking at me. "Lt. Perlman, continue with the meeting, please." I said.

"Yes sir." Tanya said. "Anything else, Myron?"

"Yes ma'am." said Myron. "On the night before Dr. Wilkins's death, his wife's cellphone received a call from that unassigned phone. The conversation lasted four minutes. The next morning there was a call from the wife's phone to Pastor Westboro, then to 9-1-1."

"That's strange." Martin Nash said. "Why wouldn't she call 9-1-1 first?"

"That's understandable." Joanne said. "The woman hears a gunshot. She runs to the back room and finds her husband of 35 years dead on the floor. In her panic, she calls the person she trusts the most, who tells her to call 9-1-1. That would be her pastor."

"Myron," I asked, my voice cutting through the room, "are there other calls to or from Pastor Westboro on that phone?"

"Yes sir." said Myron. "Mostly to the Pastor's number, and some from him. Sometimes in little clusters on Fridays and Saturdays, then spaces of times with no calls."

"Maybe that's when her ladies group has a project, and she's getting advice from Pastor Westboro?" Joanne surmised. I nodded vigorously.

"Could be." Tanya said. "Anything else, Myron?"

"The Commander asked that we take the step of downloading the GPS logs of both of the Wilkins's cars." said Myron. "Her car went to the mall, to the grocery store, to First Baptist Church, to the Community Center. His car went to BigPharmaCorp and back home, almost exclusively, but with one trip to the mall."

"Men's Wearhouse." said Tanya. "He ordered something, maybe some shirts, went to pick them up. Some of the big companies' executives do that a lot." I was impressed with Tanya for that one, I had to admit.

"Okay," said Tanya, "So I guess you did not get to interview anyone from BigPharmaCorp, since they're obstructing our investigation?"

"That is correct, ma'am." said Joanne Cummings. "They refused to allow us inside the gates to the plant without a warrant. We have the employee list, so we could go to their houses."

"They might refuse to talk to us." said Nash. "Their top brass probably came down hard on them to not cooperate with us, at least without company lawyers present, probably threatened their jobs if they talk to us." I nodded vigorously in agreement.

"So, Lieutenant Perlman," said the Chief, "how do you pro-pose to get around that little obstacle?"

"Door to door, sir." said Tanya. "We'll just have to visit the employees at their homes. If they don't talk, we might have to get a few warrants to bring them in as material witnesses, especially the people that worked most closely with Dr. Wilkins. I'm hoping that when the BigPharmaCorp legal team hears about it and goes nuts, I can offer them the alternative of us talking more quietly and less publicly with those employees at BigPharmaCorp, with their legal beagles present, of course."

I smiled brightly at that suggestion, and the Chief said "We-ell, Loo-tenant, that is what we would've had to do in Midtown, as well. But up here, we're very fortunate... we have the Pow-er of the Crow-barrrr." Everyone looked at me as I looked over at the Chief, who was sitting right next to me. Undaunted, the Chief said "And we should uuuse that Power for a more 'harmonious' result. Would you not agree, Commanderrr..."

"I totally agree, Chief." I said. I got up and went to the table, pulling the speaker-phone in the center of the table towards me. As I sat down I said "Okay, everyone, I'll ask you to not speak, so that the person I call has no idea I'm in a room full of the TCPD's finest police officers." With that, I speed-dialed one of the numbers on the phone.

A moment later, the speaker said "D.A. Krasney."

"Ah, Mr. Krasney." I said, channeling my 'Sergeant Rudistan' joviality. "This is Commander Troy."

"Commander," said Krasney, "I'm very busy at the moment. Can I call you back?"

"Oh, don't make me come down there, Mr. Krasney." I said, still pretending joviality, then let my voice drop: "It would not be pleasant."

"Okay, Troy, what do you need?" asked Krasney, his voice a bit short.

"I understand that my officers have asked for warrants to talk to the BigPharmaCorp employees, but there apparently has been some... delay... in getting them." I said. "What I need, Mr. Krasney, is those warrants... forthwith."

"Look, Don," said Krasney, "we can't just go blasting into BigPharmaCorp like that. They're a big company, influential. We've got to push the bullet through the molasses instead of firing it."

I need not say that a number of police officers were rolling their eyes, including their Commander. So I grinned to them as I played my trump card into the phone.

"I can certainly understand that, Mr. Krasney." I said sweetly. "By the way, Bettina Wurtzburg of KXTC has been calling me about the death of Dr. Wilkins as well as the attack on Dr. Grayson and his wife. I was about to give her an interview and discuss why BigPharmaCorp is not cooperating with us... and not cooperating with the District Attorney's Office in allowing us to talk to their employees."

There was silence on the line. I bore home. "I was going to tell Bettina, on camera, of course, that your people are doing all they can to get those warrants, so the problem must be on BigPharmaCorp's end. So if I tell Bettina that Dr. Tom Cubbard is not working with District Attorney Krasney in 'a spirit of harmonious cooperation', I won't be telling her wrong, now will I?"

"You fucking son of a bitch." I heard Krasney say, barely audibly, but audibly nonetheless.

"Oooooh, eeeeeasy on that language, Mr. Krasney!" I said jovially, working hard not to laugh out loud at my grinning officers. "So!... do you want to be the windshield or the bug today?"

"All right, you'll get your warrants. And I'll work it out with BigPharmaCorp for you to talk to their people, but it'll be tomorrow morning." said Krasney.

"Tomorrow is Saturday, Mr. Krasney." I said. "My people need to do these interviews today."

"Jesus Christ..." I heard Krasney mutter. "Okay, in an hour."

"Good enough, Mr. Krasney--" I started, but the click on the line arrested further necessity for conversation. A round of applause broke out in Classroom 'E'. Tanya got up and came over and gave me a fist bump.

"Chief," said Martin Nash, "we're good police officers, but I don't think any of us can do that and get away with it."

"Neither could I." said 'Cav' Moynahan, though I knew he could. He stood up. "And most of you shouldn't try, until you have the power to back it up, and the experience to do it right. Okay, guys, you're doing very well, keep it going." With that, he left the room. I also left, saying I would not be going to the interviews, and that I would read the excellent reports that would be filed by tomorrow morning. The MCD Squad got my drift.

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

At 3:00pm, ADA Washington came to Police Headquarters, and to my office. Paulina Patterson came in with him.

"It was bad, Commander." said Franklin. "Nance was way beyond the pale today. He demanded the name of the confidential informant, which I refused to give. Nance then said he might order you, Commander Troy, to provide that name, or you'd be jailed for Contempt. I told him that he knew as well as I did that the law explicitly disallowed that, so he backed down. But he was angry from the get-go, and he dismissed all charges against the Douglases... with prejudice."

"That means we can't re-file the charges, even if we find more on them." I said.

"We can appeal the ruling." said Paulina. "And if you had new evidence, we might even win. Nance made what we call a 'highly irregular' ruling on this one. But one thing is clear: he meant to get the Douglases set free."

"Yep." I said. "I figured it was a lost cause. And now we have the death of Dr. Wilkins of the BigPharmaCorp Research Department to handle."

"Do you think this is related to the Grayson case?" Paulina asked.

"Early days yet, to know about that." I said. "The Wilkins death might have been a suicide, though we're examining it as a homicide first, as the Chief has taught my Officers. That's a normal tactic, so don't read too much into it."

Both ADAs nodded.

"Okay guys," I said, "thanks for all your hard work on this. We can't win 'em all, I guess."

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

At 6:00pm, Lieutenant Tanya Perlman came to my office. Her Detectives were putting their reports of their interviews into the computers; some had taped the interviews, and those were being digitized and placed into the servers as well.

"Have a seat." I said. "What did you find out?"

Tanya sat down and crossed her shapely legs as she said "That was one exasperating experience. I almost called you. Almost, but not quite."

"Legal beagles give you trouble?" I asked.

"No sir." said Tanya. "It was their CEO, Dr. Tom Cubbard. He is a total asshole; he makes me want to work with Sharples and Ikea again, he's so bad. He was insisting on being in every interview with every member of the Research Department staff. They were clearly intimidated by his presence, and he was meaning to intimidate them. But I kicked him out. I just told him that I could call the Commander himself down, and Dr. Cubbard wisely decided getting out was the better option."

"Nice." I said. "So what is the upshot of it all?"

"They're all absolutely shocked about Dr. Wilkins's death." Tanya said. "Once Cubbard was out of there, we did as you'd told me to tell my guys: we asked about both Dr. Wilkins and Dr. Grayson, and some of them finally started to confide in us a little bit."

Tanya continued: "They said that in August and September, Dr. Wilkins and Dr. Grayson both seemed pretty agitated about something. Most of the staff thought it was research-work-related, that someone was putting pressure on them to get a process completed. That is not irregular, so I'm told. But Martin noticed something coming out, and started asking and re-asking about it."

"From all accounts," Tanya went on, "Dr. Wilkins and Dr. Grayson had always gotten along very well, and they worked together very closely. But a few weeks ago, beginning in the August timeframe, people noticed some friction between them. It peaked in September, but then seemed to subside as time went on. However, Nash got people to admit that Dr. Wilkins and Dr. Grayson were still distant with each other."

"But there was a spike of phone calls between them in the last couple of weeks." I said. "What of that?"

"Not sure yet, sir." Tanya said. "Dr. Grayson has not been back to work since the attack on himself and his wife. I told Joanne to ask Mrs. Wilkins, when she interviews Mrs. Wilkins, if the Wilkinses went to visit the Graysons at the hospital or at home since the attacks, and to also ask if the two families were good friends."

"Good!" I said. "Excellent! You are doing a great job, and so is your team. Be sure to tell them I said that." Tanya nodded, blushing a little as she grinned that cherubic grin of hers.

"What about research materials?" I asked. "Especially that refined stuff we found on the Douglases?"

"After the Grayson attacks," Tanya said, "the Security people did an inventory of all research materials. I asked their lead lawyer for the results of that inventory, but he said he'd have to check with the CEO and the Board before releasing it."

"Yeah. Right." I said acerbically. "I don't know which judge has night duty tonight, but he's going to be doing some work this evening. Call the Courthouse, get a warrant for that report from Security, as well as detailed reports for anything that was found missing. Have that warrant served as soon as you get it, call people in to the facility if you have to. If they don't cooperate, call me at home. I will not only show up, but I will have the FBI with me, and you can tell Cubbard that if you need to. I have a feeling about this one..."

"Yes sir." said Tanya. "By the way, we were working with the Security people behind the scenes, and they were going to let us know on the side about any problems with research materials... but I was quietly told today that someone brought a hammer down on them when they started looking into the situation. They're cooperating to the extent they must. but we have to do this the all legal and proper way if we're going to get anything."

"It's just as well." I said. "If and when this gets solved, it will have to be wrapped in a nice legal bow. By the way, Tanya," I said, using her first name to bring informality into the conversation, "there was a 'strangeness' about the crime scene. Have you realized what it is?"

"Uh, that Dr. Wilkins might've been murdered, and it wasn't suicide?" Tanya asked.

"Sort of." I said. "Let me put it this way... if you were going to murder Dr. Laramie Wilkins in his own home... with his wife upstairs... would you not leave the Police two bodies to find, and the stage play of a murder-suicide?"

"Now that's Iron Crowbar thinking, there." Tanya teased me with her cherubic grin. "But you're right, that's a bit strange, also... unless it's one for the side that Dr. Wilkins actually did commit suicide..."