The Porno Set Mystery Ch. 01

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It was a somber cast and crew that was sitting on the floor, their hands manacled behind them with plastic zip-ties, when I came onto the crime scene with Lt. Cindy Ross and Detective Theo Washington. I was wearing my uniform with white shirt, rank on soft shoulderboards, and a black leather bomber jacket, which was a Christmas gift from the Chief. My ranks were on the epaulette flaps, and it had a Town & County police badge intricately sewn in on the left chest, complete with my badge number and 'Commander' in their places in the wreath circle. The jacket was heavy with light armor sewn in, and it was very warm. I liked it.

I also had a new red crowbar. It was the same size as the blue one I'd given Cindy, not quite as large as the 'IC2' crowbar made from the rifle that had exterminated the Rev. Jonas Oldeeds. That one was now mounted on the wall in my office. The new one was allegedly made of scrap metals from The Cabin and my previous SUV which had been destroyed there, from the remains of the vehicles that had collided and exploded when Takaki Taichi destroyed the last of the Corrigan Cell, as well as a better quality of metals than the previous one. It had 'IC3' imprinted into one end. It felt 'useful' in my hands.

Lt. Tanya Perlman was already on the scene with the Crime Lab, and she was arguing furiously with Sharples, who was trying to obstruct the Crime Lab team from going into the back room.

"What the hell is going on?" I asked, interrupting their verbal sparring.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Sharples said. Suddenly everything became very quiet, as every officer was watching to see what my response was going to be.

"I happen to work for the Town & County Police Department, Sharples." I said evenly. "Which you will will not be for much longer if you show me that level of disrespect again... ever again. I asked a question: what is going on?"

"This is my case, Commander." said Sharples. "This Detective is trying to butt in."

"That Lieutenant outranks you, Sharples." I said. "That's two strikes against you today. You'd better pray to God the third strike doesn't offend Lt. Ross. I might not be able to restrain her." I wasn't kidding; I'm not sure what was holding Cindy back from using her blue crowbar on Sharples. Her ice blue eyes were radiating ice cold fire.

"And Sharples," I said as I surveyed the room, "if Lt. Perlman wasn't clear enough, I will be: this is now MCD's case. You are not a part of it. Go back to the station and file your reports."

"Goddammit, Commander, this is my bust and my case." Sharples growled. "I'm filing a grievance with the Union if you take me off of it."

"I am counting on that to be a promise you will keep, as opposed to a threat you won't follow through on. Please file that grievance, Sharples. Ross, I am going to turn around, and if I turn back around and see Sharples on this crime scene, I will write you up." Cindy got the hint, and escorted a cursing Sharples out of the room.

"My God, how is that bastard still on the Force?" Tanya asked, her cherubic face still beet red with anger over her verbal spat with Sharples.

"The Union." I said. "He stays just inside the lines, and I can't get enough to terminate him. The Chief couldn't either."

"Who the fuck hired him?" Tanya asked as we walked towards the group of detained cast and crew.

"From what I can tell, Captain Brownlee of Personnel & Records." I said.

"Oh, that jerk." Tanya replied, understanding. "Say no more." I didn't need to. Captain Robert Brownlee was in his upper 30s, maybe early 40s, and was as big an asshole as Steven Ikea could ever hope to be. Nobody liked him, but he reportedly did Personnel and paperwork jobs very well. He was a boorish ass to his subordinates, and made no secret of his desire to be Chief of Police. He'd even made the inexcusable faux pas of actively seeking election into the Orange Order, but I found out that for the last four years he only got one vote each year, believed to be cast by himself for himself.

The unfortunate thing was that he was also exactly the kind of on-the-job politician the Chief had been trying to mold me into. He had friends on the Town & County Council as well as being a staunch friend of the Police Union and some of its key people. And he had made some rather questionable hires over the last two years, including that of Leonard Sharples, who seemed to be just exactly what Brownlee liked in a police officer -- someone who could never rise to Brownlee's level, much less to be a competent police officer, and someone Brownlee would expect to be loyal to him.

"He hired Angela Harlan at the same time." Tanya said, saying what I was not going to say in front of her. "And we didn't know what she was at the time, either."

"True." I said. "But Harlan was a good Detective in Texas... until she went bad. Sharples never was particularly competent. I think Malone approved Brownlee's choice of Sharples, thinking he, Malone, could use Sharples in some way."

Unfortunately, I had to put that conversation and those thoughts into a compartment as I came upon the cast, surrounded by heavily armored police officers.

"The body is in back." Perlman said, heading that way herself.

"I'll be there in a second." I told her, then addressed the SWAT Sergeant. "Okay, Sergeant Charles, who called for the SWAT team for these young people?" I caught the pretty platinum blonde in the crew fix her blue eyes upon me. Ah, she's the smart one I need to be talking to, I thought to myself.

"Lieutenant Michaels gave us the orders, those being to report to Sharples for this mission." said Charles.

"I see." I said. "You can stand down. Take your team back to Headquarters." Charles gave instructions and the SWAT team left. I then took out my police iPhone and texted a message to Lt. Claire Michaels, which said 'Be at Headquarters when I get back there, and prepared to discuss today with me in my office'. The message was meant to convey my displeasure with what I was witnessing today.

"Okay, Sergeant McCombs, " I said. "Have these people been frisked for weapons?"

"Yes sir. They're clean." said McCombs, and older sergeant who was not especially good. No wonder he and Sharples worked together.

"Okay, cut off those ties--"

"Sir, they're under arrest, and they're flight risks--" McCombs started saying.

"Goddammit, I said cut off those ties and release their hands!" I shouted into McCombs's face as I fronted him. "What fucking part of that did you not understand, Sergeant?!?!" I was worn to anger, and slipping like that was not good, I knew. But I couldn't undo it now.

McCombs stared at me, in shock, but also in confrontation. Fortunately (for him), Vice Detective Geiger took control and ordered the other officers to release the captives' hands. I turned to them.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am Commander Troy, in charge of the Police here. "You are all material witnesses to the crime here, and you are not free to go. Geiger, they can sit at the table where they were having lunch, and they can eat. Have them escorted to the bathroom if they need to go, only one at a time and watch them in the bathroom. Sorry, folks, but that's a necessity. In the meantime--"

"I want a lawyer." said one of the crew, a young man with a beard. "Either let me walk out of here, or get me a lawyer now."

"Who is this?" I asked Geiger. He produced a drivers license, California-issued. The guy's first name was Jay. Per procedure, all drivers licenses or other IDs had been collected and were being held by a police officer.

"Okay, Jay, you'll get your lawyer when we take you to the Station, which will be after we process this crime scene." I said.

"Then I demand to be released, right now." the bearded asshole said. "I want a lawyer, and I'm not cooperating--"

"Would you shut the fuck up?" the lovely blonde woman said. "You're going to piss them off at all of us!" The others murmured their concurrence.

"You're under arrest as a material witness, Jay." I said. "Technically, all of you are. I'm trying to be nice here, folks, but if this one asshole keeps giving me shit, I'll have all of you handcuffed again and lying on your stomachs with no bathroom breaks, maybe for hours, until I'm good and damn ready to process you." The bearded slug Jay glared at me, but said no more. That might have been because his fellow crew members were glaring very hard at him. My tactic of 'divide and conquer' was working, so far.

"Geiger, read them all their rights." I hated to do that, as it made questioning potentially more difficult. But I was now in a legal bind, so I took the correct way out going forward. "In the meantime, I need to go see the crime scene." I said. I hurriedly walked into the back room, and just in time: Tanya was getting impatient.

"Okay, what do we have here?" I asked, examining the body as Tanya fed me information.

"His name is Steve West." she reported. "Thirty-one years old, the owner and producer of 'Steve West Films', which are hardcore porno films. He likes to film in college dorm rooms, and decided our University was a perfect setting. Lt. Hanson of the Campus Police interdicted a filming last night; in the early morning hours of today, actually; but made no arrests as everyone scattered. I have the videotapes from the cameras of today's shooting, thinking maybe he got the murderer on tape."

"Secure that evidence under seal, requiring my personal permission to view it." I said. "I don't want every cop on the Force, and particularly Sharples, getting to watch porn under the guise of looking at evidence."

"As long as I'm one of those that do get to watch it." Tanya said, grinning, teasing me. I couldn't help but give a wan smile.

"All kidding aside," I said, "call my wife and tell her we've arrested porn actors and crew, and see if she wants to interview them professionally... her profession, not ours." Tanya did so, grinning like a Cheshire Cat.

Then she said to me "I'm also calling Dr. Bonnie Karpathian to come see this scene, if you don't mind. She's an expert on serial killings, and also has done some work on sex crimes. Putting a knife in a guy's crotch seems awful personal, if you ask me."

"Good enough." I said, then turned to the Crime Lab man. "Okay Labcoat, whaddya got?" I asked the man who was never seen not wearing a labcoat. I suspected he had labcoat pajamas at home, but was not going to try to find out for sure.

"West is about six feet tall." said Labcoat, his voice lilting, making me think he was gay every time I heard it, but not knowing at all what his sexual preferences actually were. "Almost all the stab wounds are angled very upwards, suggesting someone shorter than him committed the crime."

"That would be just about all of them." I said. "Actors, be they mainstream or porno, are very short. I met Charlton Heston once. He was very short, and they just made him look tall on the movie screen."

"Yes sir." said Labcoat politely. "But see here: there are two neck wounds. One was upwards, and it just got the center of the neck. The second slice all the way across was not upwards. That suggests he had fallen to the bed. The wound to the heart and the final wound to his groin was also done after he was lying back."

"First blow to the throat to silence him." I said. "Then the killer began carving him up." I looked further at the wounds, seeing the beginnings over an overall pattern. Labcoat and Tanya began watching as I began making fluid movements, as if I were practicing a martial arts routine.

"Labcoat, Tanya, look at this." I said, ignoring their open stares at me. "I've had a little bit of martial arts training, most of it from Lt. Ross in trying to avoid taking crowbar beatdowns in the gym. As I look at these blows, I'm sure West tried to defend himself or fight back, but these wounds were almost... anticipatory... yes... the killer moved fluidly, taking shots at vulnerable areas, then finished him off when he fell..." I was halfway in a reverie trance by now, my hands once again moving as if doing a martial arts movement.

"That's why he's in command." Tanya said to Labcoat. "I don't know how he expects anyone else to have seen that."

"So this knife here..." I said, examining it. "Labcoat, are you at a point you can extract it?"

"Not yet, sir, we need to make sure there are no fingerprints." Labcoat said. He quickly brought a technician over to process it as I looked around the room, seeing nothing of significance except two paper plates that had carried food were now on the floor, a big mess as the food had splattered onto the floor with the plates coming to rest on top.

West had been checking the light with a device, and had dropped that device on the floor at the foot of the bed. From that I could tell he likely was standing there when someone came up behind him. "Labcoat, can you tell right now if the first throat wound, the one that got his larynx and kept him from crying out, was from behind or in front?" I asked.

"Not for sure." said Labcoat. "But likely front or perhaps an angle from the front right side. But it will take the Medical Examiner to get a better idea of that."

"I understand." I said. "Thanks." I looked around. There was an exit from the building at the very back left of the room, to my left as I faced the body on the bed. I was assured by multiple officers that the door was locked, had been locked, and could only be opened from inside. To my back right as I faced the bed was a short hallway to the front room, and to my front right was a door which, so I was told, led down a corridor to the bathrooms, and possibly to other building exits, though those also were locked from the inside and gave no evidence of having been recently used.

"Now Perlman," I said, "why do you suppose he or the killer took off his belt and left it there?" I asked, pointing to the black leather belt lying next to the bed on the floor right at West's feet.

"No idea." Perlman said. "Maybe the killer had an idea to strangle West in addition to multiple stabbings. As I said before: very personal."

"A strangeness, for sure." I said. Just then Labcoat came up to us. He handed me the knife, which had been bagged as evidence.

"No prints." he said. I nodded as I examined the weapon of death.

"Commander," said Tanya, "there are blood spatters on the sheets, here, and it looks like the sheet was lifted next to the body, and this smear is where the handle was wiped off. Blood spots here, here, and here show where the sheet contacted the body as it was lifted over it."

"Good observation, Perlman." I said continuing to examine the knife in the plastic evidence sleeve. "This knife is a lot like that thin stiletto knife Sergeant Brody had in his belt during the 'Black Badge' case. It actually can curve, though it's strong enough if stabbed straight into a body. I am thinking that when we process this crew at the Station, we need to be looking for secret pouches in belts and purses where it might have been secreted."

Just then, Dr. Bonnie Karpathian arrived, her dark black hair in its frazzle of drilled curls, looking as if she'd been struck by lightning to get that hairdo. Her full lips looks inviting, and her slender body was dressed in a gray suit with black blouse and black high ankle-high boots. She was a vivacious woman, and she could not hide that even in the presence of a murder.

Tanya spoke to her a few minutes, and Bonnie examined where the knife had been in the poor dead man's groin. "Yes," Bonnie said, "if someone left the knife in his groin like that, it does suggest something sexual about the crime. He was a porn director, maybe he did something to one of the women he filmed."

"Or maybe a jealous girlfriend not associated with the porn industry?" Tanya suggested.

"Or the boyfriend of a girl this guy induced to be in his porn films..." I said, then caught myself. "But we're speculating with insufficient data, aren't we?"

I moved to wrap up. "Okay, Labcoat, help the M.E. when he gets here, if he gets here, and wrap up this scene. Bonnie, thanks for coming down, and feel free to examine whatever you need to. Perlman, you're with me; we have to interview these suspects, and mighty fast."

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There was no good place to interview the suspects privately, so I had an officer take each person to a side or corner of the big front room, with instructions to ask what they saw, and who had not been part of the group. I made sure to take the platinum blonde woman, whose real name was Callie Carrington, myself. She was wearing a very tight white t-shirt that strained against her large breasts, tight blue jeans that showed off her magnificent ass, and brown strappy sandals with a solid wedge heel that showed off her very shapely feet quite nicely.

"I'm a fan of yours, Miss Carrington, and my wife is, too." I said. "She likes those romance videos you make."

"Ah, that's sweet." said Callie, smiling happily at the compliment. "And she's a lucky woman to have you, Commander... you're a handsome man. Want to trade police work for a starring role with me in my films?" Yes, she was as intelligent as she was beautiful, I realized. Already trying to ingratiate herself with me.

"I'll keep that in mind." I said. "Okay, what can you tell me about what happened leading up to finding Mr. West?"

Callie said "We finished a scene with me and Bobby. Steve told us to go get lunch. Lisa toweled me down and I put on my clothes and she and I went to get lunch with everyone else."

"Do you remember the order of the line?" I asked.

Callie answered "Bobby was first, he has no manners and just went out there half naked. He eats like a horse. Then there was Cassandra. She eats a lot too, and I don't know how she keeps that beautiful figure of hers, but she does. Then there was Lisa, and then me. Then... I'm not really sure. I think Betsy, Steve's assistant who does all our paperwork, getting hotels and plane reservations and stuff, was behind me, and our security guys were there. Yes, that's it, I do remember Rich and Rod behind Betsy. Then Roger came in a minute later; he's in charge of all the A/V equipment, computers, and such stuff. I remember that because normally he's helping Steve set up scenes, but this time he was eating lunch with us at the table when Lisa screamed."

"So the security guys were eating with you?" I asked.

"Oh yeah, that's normal." Callie said. "They're there to handle any issues that come up, but for the most part we never have problems, so they eat with us if there's food catered.

I had Callie make me understand about Lisa getting plates for Steve and the other cameraman, Jay. She told what happened, then said "Connie was going through the line when Lisa started getting some food for the guys. I think Connie was the last one to go through."

"So Jay did not make it through the line?" I asked.

"Never saw him, that I can remember." Callie said.

"Let me guess... he's also the guy that was asking for a lawyer from the get-go." I said. Callie just grinned a beautiful grin, and confirmed it.

All of the Officers' notes of their interviews were good, and all the stories matched... save one. The man called 'Jay' refused to talk at all, reiterating his demand for a lawyer. Everyone else was brought to the Station in a paddywagon, none of them handcuffed. Jay's hands were cuffed behind his back, and he was brought separately to the Station in the back of the Police Commander's new SUV. Tanya rode shotgun, and loved checking out the new equipment in the SUV, not to be confused with the 'equipment' of the men or women riding with her...

Part 3 - Legal Beagles

Back at Police Headquarters, Sergeant Rudistan and a team of patrolmen led everyone through the booking process while I met with ADA Paulina Patterson, Captain Leslie Charles of the Uniformed Police, Lt. Cindy Ross, Lt. Tanya Perlman, MCD Detective Theo Washington and Vice Detective Timothy Geiger in Classroom J. I had Geiger in there for two reasons: first, to tweak Sharples; and second, because of the possible Union grievance, so that I could say I did keep a Vice Detective on the case.