The Ensigns of Detection Ch. 03

Police sketch artists do a lot more than just draw, these days. They have computers that can do things that would seem to be sheer magic in Sherlock Holmes and Watson's day, I mused to myself. Digital pictures are a thing of beauty to the law enforcement officer... though they are a disaster as Court evidence.

"Good work, Martin." I said. "So what was this Fulton's occupation, if any?"

"Not sure." said Martin Nash. "I'm thinking he was working under a new identity, which is why he's stayed off the grid for nearly a decade. I'm checking for any missing persons calls for someone in the area that didn't show up to work today, and I'll keep working that angle for the next couple of days. I'm also checking for any altercations in any bars that might've been between him and what may turn out to be his killer or killers."

"More than one, you think?" Tanya asked.

"I'm not saying that's the case," said Nash, "but Fulton was a large, powerful man with a record of getting into fights. I think just one man taking him down would be quite a feat, and that kind of fight probably would've led to arrests made by Police over the weekend. So I'm thinking that he had to have been totally ambushed, or it took someone the size and strength of Commander Troy here to deliver that kind of blow."

"C'mon, I'm not that big or powerful a guy." I replied. "But I get the point: this man was a bruiser, and wouldn't be easily taken down without a good fight. So, what else are you going to do to get a bead on this man?"

"I've already checked with BigPharmaCorp's personnel office, and he was not an employee there. None of the security staff recognized his photo, either." said Nash. "I'll check with the other shifts as they come on, and I'm thinking of making the round of bars to see if anyone recognizes him."

"You can't do that yourself." said Tanya. "That's going to take some manpower."

"Yes, it is." I said. "And since Captain Ross is unavailable, I'm going to personally call all three Precinct Captains and tell them to have any and all Detective wannabees to come in wearing plainclothes, and to report to you, Detective Nash. Send them Fulton's photo and have them canvas all the bars in the areas that working-class people would tend to go, then work down to the strip clubs and the Tenderloin District as the last resort."

"Sir," said Tanya, "do you think this murder is related to the other two crimes involving BigPharmaCorp?"

"I don't know. No data yet." I said. "It could be, but I have reservations about it. Above all else, Martin, don't let the other cases cloud your judgment on this one. Treat it as a separate case, whether or not it is one. If there are connections, they'll present themselves to us soon enough." Nash nodded and made some notes.

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

"Animal fat." said J.R. Barnes. He was sitting in my office with his preliminary report. Dr. Woodrow was in the Chief's office, making the acquaintance of his new boss, the Chief.

"Slight spots on the clothes, and all in the lint you had me bag." said Barnes, not needing to say that he was impressed that I'd had him take that precaution. "Some animal blood, also, but not enough to make a good, clear determination of the species."

"Still," I said, "this is fast and amazing work, J.R. Tell everyone in the Crime Lab how impressed I am with them."

"Commendations on Medals Day would go a long way towards conveying that, sir." said Barnes. "Dr. Woodrow and I are sending you some emails."

"I've already got a couple, and yes, send the rest and I'll push them through." I said. "Okay, so Fulton had traces of animal fat on his clothes..."

"Mostly in the cloth of his pants pockets, sir." said Barnes. "He must be coming into contact with the animal fat, then putting his hands in his pockets."

"So what does that tell you, 'Detective' Barnes?" I asked with a smile.

"Tells me I'm not a Detective, Commander. Damn good CSI, but not in the ballpark of the Iron Crowbar and his team."

"Modesty is a human trait, Mr. Barnes. I will excuse it." I said with a grin, getting to use Chief Griswold's line for the first time myself. A 'bucket list' item achieved, I thought to myself. "You and all your Crime Lab people are better detectives than you let on."

"I appreciate the compliment, sir," said Barnes, "but seriously, Dr. Woodrow asks us to not speculate nor theorize, lest we bias our tests and results. He said something about the Police Commander not being happy about theorizing without facts." I could not help it; I began laughing and could not stop for a moment.

"He's right, he's right." I said as I got hold of myself. "Okay, seriously, what does this suggest to you?"

"It suggests he uses a product with animal fat in his work, sir." said Barnes. "Animal fats are used as machinery lubricants, and of course in the food industry."

"Yes." I said. "Tallow is made from animal fat, and used extensively for making things like soap, flux for soldering, biofuels, print etching, and of course food products."

"Yes sir," said J.R., "but what we found wasn't rendered tallow. Just plain old raw animal fat."

"Hmmmm." I said, thinking about that. "Okay, what else?"

"The 'bling' he was wearing, the necklace." said J.R., "It's a cheap piece of crap. Necklaces like it are sold mostly in Florida on the beaches as trinkets. Here's the thing, though, sir: a minor gang was using them as a membership emblem. I've sent an email with the details of it, but the wearers were white guys in south Florida that were infiltrating Cuban and Latino gangs. They'd set off gang wars amongst the Hispanic gangs, but then someone ratted them out, and we think it was the FBI that did the ratting."

"The Government does not like competition." I said. "They probably had their own operations, and these necklace-wearers were interfering."

"Could be, sir." said J.R. "And it was an FBI white paper that I read that talked about this. But that's not to say our guy here was one of them; it could be sheer coincidence he was wearing that same type of necklace."

"Okay, good work." I said. "I want you to brief Detective Nash fully when he gets back. I've already left him an email to contact you. You did email him all your findings, didn't you?" J.R. assured me that he had, and sent a copy to Lt. Perlman as well.

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

6:30pm. Cindy Ross came into Headquarters, and pronounced herself surprised to find me still at work.

"Chief hasn't gone home yet." I said. "And you know that deal. But you can go home if you like. I've already chased the Detectives out of MCD, those that aren't working with Nash on canvassing the bars, and Vice goes home whenever they damn well please--" I stopped myself, then said "That is not a complaint; I know that they do nighttime missions. So, what did you find?"

"Sandra Speer and I were catching up on Robin Grayson and his college chemistry work." Cindy said. "You'd love it, it was about---"

I raised my hand to stop her. "I read his reports, years ago. Refreshed my memory over the weekend. " Cindy was either displeased I'd stopped her narrative, or not happy that I was ahead of her on this, but she continued:

"Well, I remember you interviewing Dr. Wilkins after the Grayson home invasion." Cindy said. "He said that Grayson was not doing work on the refined heroin anymore, but someone may have been. What Sandra and I found out is that there's a patent application on file at the Patent Office, and there are two NDAs on file with the FDA with some of that work being part of the research."

One of the things about Government that frustrates Your Iron Crowbar is that a big drug company can spend billions, literally billions-with-a-'b', of dollars on research, try to keep it secret, try to sneak their patents through the Patent Office before the competition sees the applications... but then when they file an NDA (new drug application) with the FDA, they are obligated to describe the drug and the processes in making it... and just about anyone can obtain that NDA information, including foreign entities like the Red Chinese; it's all just there for the theft of the intellectual property. Sheesh.

"Hmmm," I said, "I wonder if Dr. Grayson knew this, or if someone was trying to sneak around him. From what I know of BigPharmaCorp, they're pretty good about letting their researchers file for patents personally, then licensing them."

"Maybe that was the source of the rift between Grayson and Dr. Wilkins." said Cindy. "Grayson found out someone else was using his, Grayson's, former research, he complained to Dr. Wilkins, who didn't act fast enough for Grayson's liking..." She broke off, putting the thoughts together in her platinum blonde head.

"That's a possible idea." I said. "I do daresay that the left hand did not know what the right hand was doing. You know..." I stopped. And went into a reverie myself.

Some minutes later, I came out of my thought-trance. Cindy was looking at me. "You went deeper than me, that's for sure." she said.

"Yeah..." I said, still halfway out of it. "I just realized some things. I think you're onto something about this. When we break past BigPharmaCorp's legal barriers, we have some serious questions to be asking, and of the right people."

"Cool beans." she said. "By the way, I peeked at all the emails on this morning's dead guy, Fulton. Seems to be a rough character, by all accounts. Rape, too."

"Exactly." I said. "And that is why you and I will be going with some Detectives to interview the Grayson's tomorrow at their home. The Graysons have been released from the Hospital, but are still recovering. I want you to talk to Mrs. Grayson, and show her the pics the Sketch Artists put together of this guy Fulton in a mask, and then his face from this not-too-recent mugshot. I'll do the same for Dr. Grayson, and also interrogate him about the Wilkins death."

"Wilco." Cindy said.

"So..." I asked. "What have you got against Robin Grayson?"

Cindy's eyes widened, then bored into me. "What makes you think that?" she asked.

"Ohhhhh," I said, leaning back in my chair, "I couldn't help noticing that, as you talked about them just now, you give Dr. Wilkins his title of 'Doctor'... but you're calling Dr. Grayson by his last name alone, dropping the title, showing a dropping of respect for him. What gives?"

Cindy nodded as she processed that. "I wasn't aware I was showing it so blatantly. But you're right. I think something's goofy with him. He was having an affair with Emma Washburn, his wife knows he's had other affairs, and I'm starting to get a vibe about him... the 'smarmy' vibe."

"The infamous 'smarmy' vibe." I said with a grin, teasing my partner. She could not prevent a grin. Then I said "Seriously, I do understand where you're coming from, though I don't feel that way about him yet. If you want to ask Mrs. Grayson more about that, and she's up to talking about it, go for it."

"Okay." Cindy said agreeably. "Anything else? I need to get home and see how Jenna's doing after her first day back at work."

"Yeah, just one thing." I said, "I don't want you to mention this to Martin, nor to Tanya. I want to see if he checks out the victims of Fulton's previous rape crimes, and thinks of doing that on his own in the next 24 hours or so."

"Do I understand that you're not going to be letting any perps get away in waiting like that?" Cindy asked.

"I believe that will be the case." I said...

Part 14 - Interviews

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" yelled the lovely MILF redhead reporterette at 7:00am, Tuesday, November 24th, from in front of the gates of BigPharmaCorp. "Channel Two News has learned that BigPharmaCorp is refusing to cooperate with the Town & County Police and its investigation of the death of their Senior Vice President and Research Director, Dr. Laramie Wilkins, as well as the attack on their Vice President Dr. Robin Grayson and his wife!"

Bettina went on: "BigPharmaCorp CEO Dr. Tom Cubbard states that his company has cooperated with all subpoenas for information, but that the TCPD has exceeded those warrants in their attempts to interrogate BigPharmaCorp employees. Incoming Police Chief Sean Moynahan responded vigorously, stating that no company is too big to respect the law and cooperate with authorities, including BigPharmaCorp. Chief Moynahan has called upon District Attorney Gil Krasney to open an investigation of BigPharmaCorp."

Wow! I thought to myself, elated. Chief Moynahan is not playing; he is not brooking the politicians nor the political ramifications of BigPharmaCorp's power play against us. And astute observers would know that one did not ask the D.A. to open an investigation; by rights, we should be asking the FBI to do that. So I knew that Chief Moynahan was lighting the proverbial fire under Krasney's political ass. This... was going to get fun, I was thinking.

Bettina continued, as a photo of Michael Fulton appeared on the screen: "Channel Two News has also learned that a body found near BigPharmaCorp's property is that of one 'Michael Campbell Fulton'. Fulton has a long rap sheet of crimes, and the Police are asking anyone who may have seen Fulton this past weekend to contact the Police Department."

"In other news," said Bettina, who was going strong, having eaten her Wheaties this morning, "Fireman Roy Easley is making tremendous progress as he heals from the burns he received in rescuing a child from a devastating apartment fire last week. Doctors say he still has a long recovery process from his burns, but he is out of mortal danger. That cannot be said of Deputy Chief Robert Brownlee, who is still in critical condition in the ICU at University Hospital after a massive heart attack."

Bettina gave way to Chuck Pringle for the Sports report. As we listened, Joanne Cummings asked "Why isn't Nick Eastwood giving the Sports, especially this week? After what happened to him against State Tech last year, I would think they'd want to feature him." There was a general acclaim of agreement in the room.

"I think it's exactly because of last year that they're keeping Nick away from coverage of this game." I said. "The Media has been asked by the Conference to play down the tensions from Nick's career-ending injury. So Nick gets to cover the Wildcats-Purple Hawks game." There was a general acclaim of understanding in the room.

What I did not tell them, which Laura had told me, is that Nick Eastwood himself had been asked to speak up to urge calm and good sportsmanship... and he'd refused. Eastwood had said he would not add fuel to the fire, hence his not covering the Bulldogs game for KXTC; however, he had made it clear that nothing was forgiven, much less forgotten, as State Tech had cost the young man a lucrative NFL career.

I could empathize, actually. 'Forgiveness' is overrated, I thought to myself. Vastly overrated.

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

"This is Priya Ajmani, Five-Alive News in the Morning!" shouted the gorgeous Indian reporterette at 8:00am. Cindy and I were watching in my office.

Priya reported: "Local police report no progress in the cases of the assault on BigPharmaCorp's Dr. Robin Grayson and the gang rape of his wife. Police are also looking into the apparent suicide of Research Director Dr. Laramie Wilkins, and consider some aspects of the case to be suspicious enough to warrant further investigation. BigPharmaCorp CEO Dr. Tom Cubbard issued a statement that the company is cooperating with the investigation."

Priya continued: "While Fireman Roy Easley continues to recover from injuries sustained in an arson fire near the Business District, Police have no leads on the arsonist, nor any reasons why the fires were set. And Deputy Chief Robert Brownlee continues to fight for his life after a massive heart attack suffered at Police Headquarters."

More Priya: "KSTD's formal complaint of Police interference with our First Amendment rights to report the news you have a right to know, has been ignored by the County Inspector General, Horace S. Wellman. KSTD plans to file formal legal action against the Police Department and Commander Donald Troy, for unlawful stops of KSTD news vans and the arrest of one news crew as we attempted to bring coverage of the rescue of A.D.A. Jenna Stiles and her assistant. Ms. Stiles returned to work on Monday, and has not returned KSTD's calls for comment."

"KSTD just does not learn, do they?" I asked as I assembled paperwork on my desk.

"Think anything will come of their lawsuit?" Cindy asked.

"Absolutely." I said. "It will be dismissed with prejudice within ten seconds of reaching Judge Folsom's desk, and he will be pre-empting any other judges from action upon it. Priya, or more accurately KSTD, has riled up just about every Government official in this County, including those of the Judicial branch."

"How do you know he's going to do that?" asked Cindy. I had to smile at that one.

"My dear cousin," I said, "I am finally learning how to play this Game. Let's just say that sources deep within the County government have quietly and confidentially informed me of His Honor's intentions."

Cindy allowed her eyes to roll. "Secret sources. Now you have an excuse for not telling me anything."

"Whaddya mean, 'not tell you anything'... I just told you what Judge Folsom is going to do." I said. "And don't tell me you're not working on developing your own secret sources. At least I hope you are... Captain." That jolted Cindy wide awake: it made her realize her Police position was as much political as professional, and she had to play the Game, too.

Just then there was a knock on my door, and Detective Nash peeked in. I waved him on in.

"Sir, ma'am," he reported, not sitting down, "the Duty Desk just told me that a missing persons report was called in. The Publix up near the Mall and River Valley County Club said that one of their employees in their meat department didn't show up for work yesterday. They called it in and our Duty Desk said they'd look into it. But as you know, missing persons cases don't become formal for 24 hours. The Publix called back this morning, so I'm going to go talk to them."

"Sure. Sounds promising." I said. "Did you or your guys get anything last night?"

"Maybe, sir." said Nash. "Sergeant Carswell and Patrolman Phil Goodwright said that Fulton looked familiar to the barkeep of the Riverside Tavern. That bar is just north of Ronald Reagan Park, on the River and near the Mall and the subdivisions up there. If Fulton is the missing guy from the Publix, it well might be where he'd go to get a drink before going home."

"Okay, but don't make assumptions." I said. "Go check out the Publix, and we'll go from there. Meanwhile, Captain Ross, you and I will go do our interviews, and we'll take Torres and Parker with us."

"Yes sir." said Nash. "I'll take Goodwright with me, if that's okay with you. He's a rookie, but he's got some promise." Cindy and I nodded in agreement.

Nash then said "And after that, I'm going to follow up on Fulton's alleged rape charge in Nextdoor County, and see what I can find about the victims of that crime... what?" he asked, seeing Cindy and I look at each other, mentally 'high-fiving' each other through our eyes.

"Nothing." I said. "I'm glad you thought of that, Martin. Do follow up on it, and let us know what you find..."

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

I drove in my Police SUV, with Cindy riding shotgun, and Detectives Diana Torres and Teddy Parker in the backseat.

"This is a nice car, Commander." said Torres. "I've got to get me one of these."

"I have to say," I replied, "that this vehicle is one of the two best perks of the job."

"What's the other one, sir?" asked Parker.