The French Connection Ch. 02

"Problem is..." I continued, "everyone who is anyone knew and knows that Elizabeth was warned that Claisson was CIA. And she not only 'disavowed' him in her world, she tried to have him killed. He narrowly avoided death in South America, and did not contact nor work with Elizabeth again. Yet... he was the one sent to 'help' you, and was pretending that he could do so."

"Don," said Melina, "I did exactly what you said. I never mentioned Waddell. I said it was Claisson that tried to kill me, that Kathy got in the way, and that I killed Claisson. You said your French Police friends would dispose of his body, that he'd never be seen nor heard of again.

"And, as you know," continued Melina, "my only chance of not having this new Muslim-loving, Jew-hating CIA Director not disavow me and have me shot in the back outside my own home... was to play it exactly your way. So that leaves you, Elizabeth, or Leonard as the snitch."

"No, not them." I said. "And there is another possibility."

"What's that?" asked Laura.

"Whoever sent Waddell to England, to 'defect' to Russia." I said. "That's soooo Soviet 1980s, and a joke of a plan. It was that person, who sent Dana Fox to California to try to shut down Callie and her business, who had Dana Fox trying to arrest me and 'disappear' me for alleged treason after the Lost Drone case, who had Red Brooke taken out of Supermax and sent to kill Jack Muscone's family, and who sent Waddell to France to set up exactly what happened, who is our suspect and our prey."

Commas again groaned at that heck of a run-on sentence. But I digress...

"And what was set up, that happened?" asked Joanne.

"The attempt to murder Melina." I said, looking at my ex-wife. "You were the real target, Melina. Well, Elizabeth was, too. But it was a two-birds, one-stone operation, and my suspect wanted you, the Sheriff's wife and my wife's sister, to be exterminated."

Everyone nodded, then Laura said "We do have another problem: how do we extricate Melina from the mess created by not killing your sister?" asked Laura.

"Someone will have to go to the CIA Director and tell him that he was duped." I said. "Convince him that he was duped into the mistake of sending Melina to kill Elizabeth, much less anyone, then tell him they'll clean it up if he'll just let Melina be, and never try to send her on a foreign mission again. Do it the right way, and he'll accept that."

"And how does that happen?" Laura ask.

"You tell me." I said. "You, and some of your old friends, are the only ones that will be able to convince him." Laura nodded, seeing where I was going with that.

"Sir," said Joanne, "who is this person behind all this stuff?"

"I don't know if I should tell you." I said. "If it gets out, the perp might get away before I'm ready to strike."

"C'mon, she has a Top Secret clearance." said Melina.

"It's not about clearance." I said, my eyes boring into those of my young blonde Detective. "It's about keeping. her. mouth. shut."

"Sir, I've never given you reason to doubt me." said Joanne, getting miffed.

"Okay," I said severely as I got up to go. "I'll tell you." I told them who it was. Not one but three women were totally stunned as I turned and left the room, and went to find and talk to the FBI people...

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

Later that afternoon, I was sitting in my office, catching up on the mountain of paperwork that somehow had accumulated in less than 48 hours of being away. Helena buzzed me that I had a visitor. It was Martha the M.E.

She came in with a solemn look on her face. "I did the autopsy, sir." she said. "You can bring it up on your computer."

I knew Martha did not play these kind of games without a reason. I brought up the autopsy report, and I immediately saw her reasons. I nodded as I read through it.

"We'll just keep this sealed until after the funeral." I said quietly. "My own seal. Family privacy, whatever."

"I thought you might want to do that, sir." Martha said. She left quietly, leaving me to contemplate things...

Part 8 - Back To Business

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Fox Two News!" shouted the lovely redheaded reporterette at 7:00am, Thursday, March 22d. "Fox Two News has learned that a local woman was killed in Paris, France!"

Bettina: "Fox Two News has learned that Kathy Larrington, a young State Department official working in Paris, died of her injuries after being shot Tuesday. The State Department has not given any details, except to say that Ms. Larrington, daughter of local resident Nora Larrington and a graduate of Town High School, covered another American with her body and received the fatal wounds while saving that other person's life."

"The Secretary of State issued a statement saying 'Kathy Larrington served her Nation honorably and died bravely. She will be missed.'. Ms. Larrington's funeral Mass will be tomorrow afternoon at 2:00pm, followed by burial in the heroes section of Cemetery Hill."

"And in other news," said Bettina, "next Tuesday is the special election to fill the unexpired term of Thomas P. Cook. Assistant Public Health Officer Susan Weston has run to a large lead in the race, and with 52% in current polls, she could possibly avoid a runoff..."

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

"Weston." said Cindy. "Figures. Can't have one of the good guys win, can we?"

We were drinking coffee in MCD. I had caught up on sleep, going to bed as soon as I got home the day before. Carole didn't quite understand why I was going to bed so early, but later I heard her yell at Jim "BE QUIET! DADDY IS TRYING TO SLEEP!" when he made some kind of noise. Yelling at her brother got Carole a stint in 'time out' with her grandmother, which Bowser supervised.

"Think Weston will be okay on the Council, sir?" asked Teresa.

"I dunno." I said dully, still not really 'over' Paris yet. "By definition, she can't be worse than Thomas P. Cook. We'll have to see where her loyalties lie. If she gets on the Council and then shows she's hostile to the Police, then we may have a problem."

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

"This is Priya Ajmani, KSTD Five-Alive News in the Morning!" shouted the beautiful Indian reporterette from in front of City Hall at 8:00am, Thursday, March 22d. "With Chief Griswold now in the race for Sheriff as a Republican, all of the races are beginning to take shape! The Mayor's race has become more crowded, as Council Member Loran T. Michaels has thrown his hat in the ring, opposing current Sheriff Daniel A. Allgood. On the Democrat side, Town Assemblyman Eldrick X. Weaver is also in the Mayor's race."

More Priya: "And we're waiting for the verdict in the Jan Camp lawsuit against the University. The jury did not return a verdict yesterday, but experts say a verdict could come as early as this morning."

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

SBI Lieutenant Norm Chow came into my office at 9:30am. He and I were going to meet with State Senator Katherine Woodburn, who had agreed to have her staff and others that knew 'Queenie' be present for questioning. Most of them had been interviewed by the Nextdoor County Police or SBI Agents; this was follow-up with me present, and trying to coax some real information out of them.

"We didn't get a thing out of any of them right after the shooting." said Chow. "But if your theory is right, then Queenie had to know something."

Everyone gathered inside a meeting room at the State Office Building. I could feel the hostility of the staffers as Chow and I came in. Katherine Woodburn addressed them first: "Okay guys, we need to cooperate with these Officers. If you know something that might help them find the reasons for Queenie's murder, then let them know. Do it for Queenie; don't let the bastards that did this get away with it!"

Then I got up. "Guys, I don't care what your politics are. I don't care if you hate the Governor. My only desire here is to catch the bastards behind the triggermen, and I'm going to need your help doing that. I'll also mention this: if Queenie was targeted because she knew something, and any of you know that, then let us know fast, because that is the only way someone won't come after you, too. Your own lives might be at stake if someone thinks Queenie told you anything."

I felt like my words were falling on closed, deaf ears, but we pressed on. We interviewed them one-by-one. I asked them if they'd been read their rights (none had been), then simply asked them how well they knew Queenie, and what she might've known that would've gotten her killed. I watched them carefully as they answered, all of them telling me they knew nothing. But Katherine's main personal assistant Clark, who I knew was fucking Katherine often, did say a few things:

"Queenie's job was to research the opposition." said Clark. "She'd been working hard as hell to find something, anything, on Val Jared. She hated him with a passion, called him a 'baby killer' over environmental issues and a 'rapist' over women's issues. But as far as I know, she never could find anything on him."

"What about other Republicans she might have looked into?" I asked.

"She had plenty of proof that Graham Collins is gay, and that he's been hiring male prostitutes for years." said Clark. "But that was a pretty open secret. And she had the standard list that everyone has of who's been having an affair with who. Problem with all that stuff: reveal one person or one affair, and the dominoes start falling. So that was like the old Cold War doctrine of 'mutually assured destruction'."

Last, we talked to Katherine herself. "Queenie worked herself into being sick, trying to find stuff on Jared. She never could find anything on him, and I'd have to make her stay at my house on weekends and confine her to bed just to get her healthy again. If she found anything on him, or anyone else for that matter, she never told me."

"And she would have, and immediately, n'est pas?" I asked. Katherine affirmed that.

I had given every one of them my card, my Police card, with my Police cellphone number on it to contact me if they had anything they could tell me. Norm and I then left.

"Think that did any good, sir?" asked Chow as we drove back to Police Headquarters.

"You know..." I said, considering it, "yeah. Yeah, I think it might have. I think some of them know that Queenie knew something, even if they don't know what it is themselves. I'm thinking that we just might get a call..."

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

"This is Priya Ajmani, KSTD Five-Alive News!" shouted the lovely Indian reporterette from in front of the Courthouse complex at 2:00pm, Thursday, March 22d. "We are breaking into regular programming to bring you this breaking news! The Jury in the Jan Camp lawsuit against the University has reached a decision!"

As Priya ran down the particulars of the case, everyone began gathering in MCD for the verdict.

"Last chance to get in the pool!" joked Rudistan. "What's it going to be, Commander?"

"Camp is going to win." I said. "It's only a matter of how much money she gets."

"I hope you're wrong." said Cindy. "But I believe you're going to be right."

"And here it is!" shouted Priya. "The Jury has found for Dr. Jan Camp! Again, the Jury has decided in favor or Dr. Jan Camp! The amount of the award has already been given out, as well... twelve million dollars! Also, Dr. Camp must be given her position at the school back, and with what is the equivalent of tenure; she can't be fired again without Court approval!"

"All right, back to work." I said. I headed back to my office. Green Crowbar followed Red Crowbar right on in. I had Cindy sit down as I settled into my own chair.

"I guess Alberts did his job." Cindy said. "She won, she gets the money, so maybe she'll keep her mouth shut about Harlan and Gonzales."

"That's how I see it, also." I replied. "Oh, look, they're interviewing President Wellman." We watched:

"We respect the Jury's decision, and will abide by the Judge's instructions." said Dr. Wellman. "No, I don't know what we're going to do with regard to appeals. I need to confer with my staff and my advisors on that. The University System Regents will also have a say in it, as will the Governor and the Attorney General..."

Then Priya interviewed Della Harlow: "This is well-deserved justice for women and women's rights, and a blow to the Power Elites that keep misogynists like Commander Donald Troy in charge of the Police Force. This is a first step for change, and another step for change will be my election as Sheriff..."

Part 9 - Requiem for the Fallen

5:30am, Friday, March 23d. As I left the Mountain Nest and was about to get into my Police SUV, I noticed a slender figure in a pullover sweater with a hoodie at the end of the drive, underneath the streetlamp on its pole that lit up my front yard.

"Commander Troy," said a man's voice. "Can I speak with you?"

"Put your hands where I can see them." I said, wary as always. The young man took his empty hands out of his pockets. He came up to me, and I recognized that he was Clark, Katherine Woodburn's assistant.

"Why don't you give me a ride into Town," he said, "and I'll talk to you about some stuff."

"Okay." I said. "But I have to pat you down for weapons before you can get in the Police vehicle." He allowed me to do so. I frisked him, and found him to be unarmed.

We got into the Police SUV and I started down the road. "Are there any recording devices?" Clark asked.

"Just the onboard camera that videos traffic stops and such stuff." I said. "And it's turned off. So, what do you want to talk about?"

Clark finally relaxed, and said "It's about Queenie. She did find out something. I don't know what it was, but she came up with something."

"On Jared?" I asked.

"No." said Clark. "And not really on any politicians at all. She never could get anything on Jared; he's too clean, there's just nothing there or someone would've found it by now. She was looking into Senators Russell and Nunn. Nunn's pretty clean, too, unfortunately. He's like frickin' Sean Hannity; he makes a Boy Scout Troop look like an ISIS cell."

"So what did she find?" I asked, to get the conversation moving. I was already getting onto the Bypass, so that we could keep talking for a while longer.

"I'm not sure," said Clark, "but I think it was BigAgraFoods. That whistleblower, Larry Wheeler? I think she found the paper trail leading to the people that murdered him."

"Wow." I said. "Are you sure she didn't tell you any of it? I can protect you, but you gotta come correct with what you know..."

"No sir, I really don't know anything." said Clark. "If she told anyone, it would be Senator Woodburn, and I don't know if she told her."

"Did she leave any information where we can get it?" I asked.

"Maybe." said Clark. "She did tell a few people that if the Republicans ever 'whacked' her, they should ask Jack Lewis about 'the Willis files', and he'd understand."

"All right," I said as we came to the Junction Station Depot. "I'll keep this quiet, and I'll look into it and see if we can get Queenie's murderer."

"Even if it's your fellow Republicans, you'll do the right thing?" asked Clark skeptically.

"Clark," I said, "I'm not a Republican. I don't know why you think I am. What I am, is a policeman that does not like any innocent person being murdered. If it's a Republican that murdered Queenie, then a Republican is going down for it. Ditto that for a Democrat, by the way." Clark said no more. I suspect his rabid partisanship disallowed him from even considering that others could rise above the partisanship to do their jobs correctly and well...

I let Clark off in the alleyway-street behind the State Office Building, and went on to Headquarters.

'The Willis Files', I thought to myself as I wrote up a memorandum of the conversation with Clark, keeping his name confidential...

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

Friday, March 23d. The solemn Funeral Mass for Kathy Larrington was led by Chaplain (Father) Romano. It was well attended by people that had been her high school classmates and friends, and also by Becca's and her mother's friends.

After the Mass, the mortal remains of Goth Girl Kathy were brought to the northwest corner of Cemetery Hill, to a final resting place near that of Police Corporal Peter M. Feeley. The skies were gray, cloud-covered, matching the somber mood of those in attendance. The TCPD's Funeral Honor Guard was in full dress uniforms with medals, and led by Captain Teresa Croyle, wearing her Medal of Valor. Cindy Ross, myself, Chief Griswold, and Fire Lt. Easley were also wearing our Medals of Valor.

Becca Larrington was escorted by her fiancé Roy McGhillie, dressed in his formal uniform with medals. She was barely holding on, and had wept throughout the Funeral Mass. Now, with her sister's casket, draped with an American Flag, just a few feet in front of her, she was overwhelmed by the finality. Her mother Nora was also weeping, but was more composed.

At this same time, far away in Langley, Virginia, a star was being carved into the wall at CIA Headquarters, the wall where stars were carved to represent CIA Agents that had died in the line of duty in the service of our Nation. Kathy's sacrifice would not be forgotten there. Not many of us here even knew about it...

After words and prayers, the Honor Guard took up the American Flag, folded it tightly with crisp movements into a triangle, and passed it to Captain Croyle with an exchange of salutes. Then Teresa turned and stood before Becca and her mom, and presented the flag with those words beginning "On behalf of a grateful nation..."

Becca tried to be stoic as she took the Flag, but as Teresa saluted and moved off, Becca clutched the Flag to her chest and broke down crying in Roy's arms. This flag, and her memories, were what were left of her sister. Mrs. Williams of the Veasley Community Center comforted Nora Larrington, who remained more stoic than her daughter. Then Father Romano intoned the words "ashes to ashes, dust to dust" as he made the Sign of the Cross with dust on the end of Kathy's casket to finish the farewell rituals...

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

The Pet Cemetery is on the other side of the two-track path that runs north-and-south through the field, on the eastern border of the cemetery itself. To the direct south of the Pet Cemetery is a huge oak tree. Standing alone on the plain, it had survived for years with the help of being wired up by lightning rods and grounding cables.

It is said that the man who planted that tree did so after his own dog was buried in the Pet Cemetery, and said that he'd planted it so that 'these good dogs can lie in the shade forever'. Sounds like a man I'd have liked to know.

Today, under the gray skies and clouds, a lone figure in black was standing under that tree, avoiding being seen as she watched the funeral procession in the distance. Elizabeth was sobbing, crying her eyes out in grief over the loss of the young woman that had been in a way her daughter-in-law, and had become the friend and sister that she'd never had in her life. Now, she was all alone again. All alone...

As she cried quiet tears into the hand towel she was carrying, she became aware of something. Looking up and over her left shoulder, she saw him standing there, towering above her with his height, his face in shadow under his Police highwall cap. It was her brother, the Iron Crowbar.

My sister's face was in her hands as she collapsed into me, sobbing some more. I wrapped my arms around her and held her, and let her cry it out. For this moment, she would not have to endure the unendurable alone...

"Kathy's last words," I said, "were asking me to tell you that she loved you." Elizabeth nodded, crying into the towel and my chest.