The Guardians of Justice Ch. 02

Part 14 - Powdering Their Noses

Wednesday, October 10th, 7:30pm. We were sitting in the private room of the Midtown Chop House, talking about the case as we finished dinner.

"Something's not right." said Jenna Stiles, who was sitting to my right. "Corkle didn't even care that he's literally facing the rest of his life in prison. It's almost like he was relishing it."

"What could Hammonds have promised him," asked Shane O'Brady, who was sitting to Jenna's right, "to get him to immolate himself like that?"

"How do you know it's Hammonds?" Cindy asked. She was sitting across the table from Jenna, and to my left as I sat at the end of the table.

O'Brady said "Ralph Corkle was Hammonds's Chief of Staff before becoming the State Republican Party Chairman, or whatever they call the position. Corkle still lives in Pottsville, and sleeps in his office in Midtown." Cindy and I nodded.

"Maybe they threatened to kill him, or his family, if he cooperated?" Jenna mused.

"He doesn't have much family." O'Brady said. "He's not married, no kids that we know of. Parents may still be alive, but they moved to Florida some years ago, and if he's visited them it hasn't been for years."

"My belief," I said, "is that Corkle is a true believer, a cult worshipper of the Republican Establishment, and he is willing to take the fall for them."

"I can tell you this about him, too." I said. "Jenna, you're right that he's been a sleazebag for a long time. He was president of the College Republicans while he was at the University, and he had a column in the University newspaper, The Silver Sentinel. One day he wrote a column that was viciously unfriendly to Mahatma Ghandi. Then someone wrote a letter to the paper, detailing passages from a book about Ghandi and Corkle's almost exact same verbiage in his column."

"He plagiarized it, and got caught?" Cindy asked, her eyes lighting up.

"Yep." I said. "The paper printed an editorial, saying that Corkle's columns would no longer appear in their newspaper, which of course was and still is pretty leftwing. They did print his response, where he denied plagiarizing, and said the accusation was 'the most vicious form of personal attack possible'."

"That," Cindy said, "from a guy who attacked Ghandi, viciously and personally attacked you in the Interrogation Room, held people prisoner in the State Republican Office..."

"Yes, he's arrogant beyond belief." I said. "And if he gets out of those charges, he'll rise from crime to crime in the service of his Establishment Party until something serious happens."

"Will he get out of it? The kidnapping charges?" Cindy asked. I shrugged my shoulders.

"I dunno." I said. "We'll have to see who is Governor in two more years."

"Or two months, after next year's Legislature opens its session." Jenna said, perhaps meaning it humorously.

"Oh, Jared is not going anywhere." I said. "Unless he has a heart attack and dies, he'll finish his term. After that..." I continued, my eyes going introspective, "... there's no telling what will happen..."

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

"I'm going to go powder my nose." Cindy said quietly to me. I nodded. She did not invite Jenna nor Kimberly Wesson to go with her, which was somewhat unusual as women often go powder their noses as a group. And after Cindy was out of sight, Jenna excused herself and headed to the bathroom.

Cindy was washing up when Jenna came in. Going right up to Cindy, the redheaded woman said angrily "I really don't appreciate you questioning my integrity like you did."

"What are you talking about?" Cindy said, her voice just short of scornful.

"I'm talking about that little shot you took at me at the Station." snarled Jenna. "Asking if I'd give Republicans deals. And right in front of everyone else. And don't tell me you were joking."

Cindy turned to face Jenna. "You're right, I wasn't joking. Everyone knows you're big on women's rights, which is laudable. But you are also very biased against the Republicans, and you've said so to me many times in the past. You were also right that Don is in charge, as he always is, and if he is good with you being here, fine. But if it had been me, I'd have asked you to recuse yourself and go home. It's not a question of integrity, but simply of potential bias."

"Bullshit." Jenna hissed. "It sure came off as questioning my integrity. I won't be forgetting it." She turned on her heel and exited the restroom. Cindy watched after her, trying to understand, and understand Jenna. Finally getting no answer, she put the matter into a compartment of her mind...

Part 15 - A Successful Sting

*CHIRP!*

That was Cindy's Police iPhone, indicating that she had a text.

"It's from Teresa." Cindy said. "She says 'come by the station when you get back'. What do you think that's about?"

"Probably something local." I replied, my eyes scanning the road for potential problems, then cutting over to Cindy, who was riding shotgun. Norm Chow was in the back seat, and while I trusted him, I just didn't want anything on the Holloway sting to be said out loud.

We had gotten a call asking us to bring all of our evidence to our home County. Federal Judge K.M. Landis was in Town, and along with Superior Court Judge Patrick R. Folsom was taking over the case. The evidence included all the raw vote tallies from every county in the State, being delivered by State Patrol Officers... well armed and armored Officers. The judges wanted to see everything so that they could make rulings quickly, as we were really up against it, time-wise.

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

"Sooooo," said Chief Moynahan as we came into to a well-lit and very occupied Police Headquarters just before 11:00pm, still Wednesday, October 10th, "how did things goooo in Midtown?"

"Good, or bad, depending on how you want to look at it, sir." I said. "We found a lot of evidence and built huge cases for voter fraud. Good for integrity of voting and for law enforcement, but very very bad for the Republican Party in this State."

"I heard that some crowbar beat-downs had to be administerrrrred." said the Chief. "You did not waste much time christening that new green crowbar, Ms. Rosssss." He was smiling as he said it.

Cindy beamed as she held up the aforementioned crowbar. "Yes sir, we got work done today."

"Come on into the Main Conference Roooooom." invited the Chief.

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

Joining us was Assistant District Attorney Paulina Patterson, Captain Teresa Croyle, Captain Tanya Perlman, Lieutenant Irwin, Lieutenant Mary Milton, and new Vice Detectives Roark Coleman and George Newman. Roark was white, fairly tall, lanky, with black hair. We jokingly called him 'Howard Roark', the Ayn Rand main character in her book 'The Fountainhead'. Newman was black, stocky but not nearly as much as Rudistan, and was a very smart guy. Some jokingly called him George Foreman, but I didn't see it myself...

"We sent Janice Holloway on home." said Tanya. "She went to the Harlow campaign meeting tonight. She was wearing a wire, and had a recorder in her purse."

"How did it go?" I asked, already having seen the excited faces when they came in.

"We hit the gold mine, sir." said Mary Milton in a way only the purple-haired woman could say it.

Tanya took over: "Janice's recorder got it, and the wire transmitted it to our van, where Roark and Foreman were on stakeout, just outside in the parking lot."

They played the audio tape. It was damning. If Tunnin and Harlow went through with it, they would be cold-busted.

"It's on for Friday." said Teresa. "As you heard, Tunnin, Harlow, Amber Harris and Lester Holder discussed it extensively. They also asked Janice if she had reconsidered, and would make a charge against Teddy Parker, but she said she couldn't, as she'd been warned off. They seemed to accept that."

"And that is very, very good for our case." Paulina said.

"If they go through with it." I said.

"You think they won't?" asked Teresa.

"If they get wind that we have this, they'd be idiots to go through with it." I replied. "But beyond that, this voter fraud thing is going to be so big that it might drown out the publicity they're hoping to get. Additionally, I'm no political expert, but they may consider the damage this voter fraud thing does to be enough in itself to derail any Republican's campaign... including Daniel Allgood's campaign for Mayor, and so they won't go through with this plan."

"I'll bet you a steak dinner for all these people that Harlow and Tunnin will do it." Cindy said to me.

"And I'll take that bet," I said, "but only so that one or the other of us will be buying these guys dinner for their outstanding work. I won't mind losing this bet, either."

"Quite the opposite, I daresay." Tanya said, her cherubic smile bright, her eyes sparkling. A red crowbar was waved in her general direction, albeit in a friendly manner.

"Commander Ross," asked Teresa, "why do you think they'll do it anyway?"

"Harlow's hatred." Cindy said. "I think for her it's more than a political ploy... with her, it's personal. And not just against Daniel Allgood." Everyone nodded vigorously in agreement.

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

I brought Roark and Newman into my office after the meeting, and had them sit in the hot chairs, with Tanya perched between them. Teresa, and Cindy were also present, sitting on the sofa behind the others.

"First of all, guys, you've done great work on this stakeout mission over the last few days." I said. "Second, I wanted to ask a few questions. I know you've been getting meta-data of calls to and from Harlow, as allowed by the warrant. Did any of those calls come from or go to Senator Katherine Woodburn?"

"No sir," said Roark, "unless the Senator called from a burner phone. And there have been a number of calls between burners and Harlow's cell phone. Those same numbers have contacted Lester Holder's cellphone, but those burners were pinging from the City, not from here nor Midtown."

"Oh really!" I said, my eyes widening. "That is very interesting... is it not, Captain Perlman?"

"Yes sir." said Tanya. "But we know the Penis Holder is part of this already." Cindy had begun laughing at Tanya's use of Lester Holder's derogatory nickname, and Roark and Newman joined in that laughter. Like Teresa, I just shook my head and chuckled. A red crowbar was waved in Tanya's general direction.

"Okay, guys, outstanding work. Go home and get some sleep." I said. After the Detectives left, I said "Not bad hires from our Uniform ranks, eh wot?"

"They've done well, just as Roy and Julia are doing well in MCD." Tanya said.

"Don, I was getting a huge vibe from you a minute ago." said Cindy. "What got you so perked up?"

I gave a wan smile. "Those burner calls." I said. "Who do you think Della and the Penis Holder have been talking to?"

"We have no idea." said Tanya. "Burners are nearly impossible to trace back to a name, if that name used cash to buy them."

"True." I said. "But use your imaginations."

"Insufficient data, and it's way too late at night for this." said Cindy. "Give me the Iron Crowbar Cliff Notes." I could see that our Deputy Police Chief was tired and was getting cranky. So I conceded the point.

"Very well." I said. "I would guess that the burners are in the hands of..."

To be continued.

Who, dear readers, will the Iron Crowbar say?

The answer will be in the next exciting Chapter of Justice!