The Usual Suspects Ch. 01

The chronological order of my stories is now listed in WifeWatchman's biography.

Feedback and constructive criticism is very much appreciated, and I encourage feedback for ideas.

This story contains graphic scenes, language and actions that might be extremely offensive to some people. These scenes, words and actions are used only for the literary purposes of this story. The author does not condone murder, racial language, violence, rape or violence against women, and any depictions of any of these in this story should not be construed as acceptance of the above.

Part 1 - Prologue

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" shouted the lovely redheaded MILF reporterette from in front of City Hall at 7:00am, Monday, October 3d. "Channel Two News is bringing continuing coverage of the important political races in our County! Yesterday, ADA Jenna Stiles blasted her former boss, District Attorney Gil Krasney, for his brutally harsh treatment of Booker T. Washington High School football coach and teacher, Coach Grimes!"

"Ms. Stiles questioned if racism was involved in the decision to force Coach Grimes to retire as a school teacher. D.A. Krasney responded by saying that ADA Paulina Patterson made the plea deal with Coach Grimes, and that Grimes willingly accepted it. Experts say that passing the buck to a subordinate is an excuse and is lame, and that D.A. Krasney has made a huge mistake in his handling of this case."

"Meanwhile, in the special election to fill the seat of the late Pastor Raymond Westboro, Public Health Officer Loran T. Michaels has the lead with about 40% of the vote. Captain Scott Peterson of the Sheriff's Office Public Relations Division is in second place with about 30% of the vote, and the rest is divided among several other candidates. Sheila Sorrells, who hoped to spark her candidacy by making women's issues her platform and campaigning with Jenna Stiles, has fallen over time, and now is only getting about 10% in support. A run-off will be necessary if no candidate gets 50% plus one vote."

"And the biggest news of all is the Governor's race." Bettina said, her smile getting a bit brighter. "SBI Director Jack Lewis has opened up a 49-46% lead over the incumbent Governor, Republican Val Jared. Jared's numbers have fallen since his campaign badly bungled the legal case of Jeremy Moreland, who has been deemed to be brain-dead, but his parents' efforts to end his life by turning off the machines keeping him alive are being thwarted by the virulently pro-life 'State Right to Life Committee'. Experts say that Jared's indecisive wallowing over this issue will either cost him Evangelical Conservative votes, or will cost him moderate, socially liberal votes, either of which will cost him the Election."

"Gotta love them 'Experts'!" I said sarcastically as we watched in the MCD room. Everyone laughed.

"And now let's go to Sports, with Nick Eastwood!" said Bettina. "Nick!"

"Thank you, Bettina!" said Nick Eastwood, with the University Athletic Complex behind him. "The Bulldogs have won again, and are now 5-0 under Coach Ted Thrasher! They've got October 29th circled on the calendar, when the currently undefeated Wildcats come to Town! The Wildcats' Freshman Jamaal Washington has been a pleasant surprise at wide receiver, and running back Clarence Appletree has been a sensational Freshman running back! They're looking to defend their Conference and National titles, and the only thing standing in the way might be the Bulldogs!"

"Might as well pay up now, Captain Ross." said Detective Theo Washington, showing his 'movie star handsome' grin. "Wildcats are going to rule!"

"We'll see." said Cindy, not really rising to the bait.

"What, no banter between the Iron Crowbar and the Green Crowbar?" asked Joanne Warner, astutely observing us.

"It's been a long past few days." I said wearily.

"Yes, it most certainly has." Cindy agreed. We'd spent a lot of Sunday working through our blowup, and we got a lot of paperwork done, as well.

"That was a nice party for little Pete Feeley, though." said Joanne. Little Pete's second birthday had been Saturday, October 1st. We had a belated party for him on Sunday. I was proud of Carole for wanting to give him her 'Police' blue overalls with a sewn-in Police badge that she'd grown out of, and Tanya looked a bit emotional when she put them on Pete, who seemed to like them. And it was a good time to unwind a little bit.

"Yes, it was." I said. "Okay, I'm going to my office. If you have any reports to get in, get them in to me fast, so we can close out September..."

Part 2 - Decision Points

"Your mama is a smart lady." I said to baby Tasha as I held her in my arms. "She knows I can't be mad at her when I'm holding you and seeing you smile."

It was 7:45am, and I was in my office. Paulina was sitting in a hot chair on the other side of my desk as I held my second daughter. Tasha was smiling and cooing as I talked to her.

"You're on to me." Paulina said. "I can't stay mad at you, either, when I look at her."

"But we're still in disagreement about the Grimes case, I perceive." I said.

Paulina nodded and said "Yes, and I'll make no apologies for it. We'll have to agree to disagree on that one. It's not a viciously bad law; in most cases is a good one and meant to protect children. But I will say this..."


She took a breath and went on: "I did a lot of thinking this weekend. Some about what you said when you were mad, but a lot more about how Krasney threw me under the bus, and made it sound like it was all my idea to kick Grimes to the kerb when in reality I was just following his instructions. It's really made me wonder if I should continue working for him."

I looked up. "What... what are you going to do if you leave the D.A.'s Office?"

Paulina shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. Find another D.A.'s Office to work for. Maybe become a U.S. Attorney for the Feds. I know they'll hire me in a nanosecond."

"And... and leave?" I asked. "And take Tasha away from me?"

"I don't know." Paulina replied. "That's part of the decision. I've always loved this Town, and I've loved working as a Prosecutor here. But I saw some ugly things last Friday night. I'm not sure what this place is becoming. And Cindy told me about what happened up in your boyhood county. If I didn't know you guys and know you're telling me the truth, I would never believe such a thing could happen in this day and age."

"Oh, it happened." I said. "But we'll prevent this County from descending into that Hell, Lord willin' and the Creek don't rise." Paulina nodded.

I looked at Tasha, then said "Any other things you could do, so you could stay here?"

Paulina replied "I hope so. I want you to be part of Tasha's life, and Laura wants Tasha to be part of your children's lives. I... well, this is just between us, okay?" I nodded and Paulina continued: "I've been talking to Jenna Stiles. If she doesn't win, we may go into practice together, and concentrate on women's rights issues, civil rights issues, and such stuff."

"What about the Women's Law Firm of Dewey, Burnham & Winn?" I asked.

"I don't think they're into causes, nor social justice. They're mostly divorce attorneys, representing women and taking as much out of the husbands in messy divorce cases as they can get." Paulina replied. "I've seen good men be denied any contact with their children, much less joint custody, because of those bitches. That's not where I want to be, nor what I want to be. It's an option for Jenna, though, if she wants that."

"Well, I can understand you not wanting to work for Krasney." I said. "His political stripes and his cowardice have really shown up in these critical situations."

"What's that old saying?" Paulina says. "Stress doesn't build character, it reveals it?"

"Something like that." I said.

"Well, Tasha's daddy has been under the most serious of stress, and has revealed his noble character." Paulina said. "And I want her to see that, growing up."

"Butter me up, butter me up." I replied.

Just then, there was a knock on my door and Cindy Ross came in. "Oh, look who's here, my cute little cousin." she said, her face turning happy at the sight of Tasha.

"Yes." I said. "Here you go." I handed Tasha to Cindy, and Paulina handed Cindy a bottle. Cindy sat down on the sofa and began feeding Tasha.

"So, Paulina," Cindy said, "what is Krasney meeting with Jenna Stiles about?"

"Whaa?!" Paulina gasped, clearly startled. Cindy's ambush tactics were very good, I noticed.

"They're meeting later this morning." Cindy said. "I got that from two different confidential sources." Paulina did not know, but I did, that Cindy's sources were her Seasoned Citizen friends, and also clients and her partners in her gym. Cindy got a lot of 'scoop' from that gym.

"I... I have no idea, I didn't even know there was a meeting." Paulina said, her eyes cutting over to me. I just looked back with an 'I have no idea' look.

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

"This is Priya Ajmani, Five-Alive News in the morning!" shouted the beautiful Indian reporterette from in front of the Courthouse at 8:00am. "Five-Alive News has learned that SBI Director Jack Lewis has taken a solid lead over unpopular incumbent Val Jared in the Governor's race!"

"Five-Alive News has also learned that there is increasing pressure and popular demand to return Robert Brownlee to the Town & County Police Department, and alternative schemes, such as putting him in the Public Health Office, are being met with public opposition. But not all agree, including candidate for District Attorney Jenna Stiles, who had this to say:"

The tape showed the redheaded Jenna saying "I have rarely met anyone who shows his hatred for women as openly as Robert Brownlee. As his violent attack upon Captain Cindy Ross showed, Brownlee cannot be trusted with a badge and a Police Officer's gun. He is not fit to serve again in the Police Force, nor anywhere else in County Government, for that matter."

"And one last note." said Priya as she came back onscreen live. "KSTD is very pleased to announce the hiring of trusted, objective reporter John Hardwood to be part of the Five-Alive team! We're looking forward to hearing his reports on our network!"

As Priya signed off, Cindy asked "Don't reporters have non-compete clauses for like six months?"

"Not if they're fired, and Bettina fired Hardwood." I said.

"Okay." Cindy said. "Next question is why did Priya spend time trying to make us think the world loves Brownlee and wants him to be back in the Police Force, then shows Jenna ripping him to shreds?"

"Oh, there was a lot in that one." I said. "First, KSTD is playing both sides with that. Second, after buttering up Brownlee, Priya has Jenna, not Priya herself, tearing down Brownlee. So viewers will either come out hating Brownlee, or hating Jenna... but never hating Priya or KSTD. Last, and partly related to my previous comment, it does make Jenna look like the bad guy for attacking Mr. 'Popular' Brownlee. All in all, it was not a positive for Jenna, though some would say it's great that she got her message out, blah blah blah."

"Priya is not smart enough to plan and execute that all by herself." Cindy said. "Who's pulling her strings?"

"Katherine Woodburn." I said. "Despite her agreement with the Federal Government to not be involved with Media companies again... she flouts it at will."

"Last question: if Katherine spread her legs for you," Cindy said, a twinkle in her eye, "would you bang her?"

"Hell yeah." I said, not even blinking at Cindy's impertinent question. "Katherine has great legs, and she's not bad looking. Yeah, I'd tap that and wear it out in a heartbeat, like Brownlee only wished he could..." Cindy laughed out loud at that one.

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

At 9:00am, I was asked to come into the Chief's Conference Room. Doing so, I found the Chief at the near end of the table, Sheriff Daniel Allgood to his left, and Daniel's Chief of Staff, Deputy Sheriff Charles T. Oswald to his left. I sat down at the far end of the table, and a moment later Deputy Police Chief Della Harlow joined us, sitting down to my left. And somewhat to my surprise, the last table spot, between the Chief and Della, was filled by Town & County Councilman John 'Jack' Colby. As usual, his deep baritone voice belied his short, lean body as he greeted us.

"I've asked Mr. Colby here," said Sheriff Allgood, "so that we can coordinate a plan of action going into the next Council meeting, as well as the Election. Mr. Colby?"

"Thank you, Sheriff." said Colby. "Right now we're in a fortunate position that with the passing of the late Pastor Westboro, thanks to the Iron Crowbar here, we have a 5-4 majority on the Council. After the Election, that might not be the case, depending on who wins the vacant seat. I should say that we expect all the other Council members to win re-election."

"We'll have until January, won't we, Mr. Colby?" Della asked.

"Maybe, maybe not." said Colby. "Some Council members are pushing for the winner taking the seat immediately. That can't happen because of certain procedures about certifying the election results, but Cook and Carnes are pushing hard for the seat being filled in any December meetings. There will probably be a Court ruling over it, as if our Courts don't have enough frivolous stuff to deal with."

Sheriff Allgood took over: "So what we need to do, ladies and gentlemen, is get our ducks in a row and our plan of action in place for this month. Promotions for the Police Department are coming up on November 1st. We also have to deal with any changes to the Precinct structure that we want, and disposition of--- Commander, where are you going?"

I had gotten up. "I'm going to go have some coffee delivered to this room." I said. "This is going to be a long, long meeting, I can tell already."

"Not much gets by you, Mr. Crowbarrrrr." said the Chief. "Excellent idea."

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

If the Detectives were called to the breakroom to solve the Case of the Missing Coffeemaker, the solution would be found in the Chief's Conference Room. It was amazing how much coffee was consumed. What was more amazing was what was discussed.

"Okay," said the Chief, "so if we can cut it down to two Precincts, the 1st Precinct being with the County Jail, and the 2nd where it is in the Old Mill Building, that might be acceptable to the Council?"

"It works for me." said Jack Colby.

"Me, too." said the Sheriff. "Commander?"

"Y'all won't believe what I am about to say." I said, my mind halfway in a reverie. "As you know, my first choice is to have no Precincts, or just one all-County Precinct and then Police Headquarters. But failing that, I'm remembering that high school football game last Friday. 1st Precinct is like a buffer between 2d and 3d Precincts. Take that buffer away, and we have a Town and a County divided almost directly along racial lines. And that just feels like trouble to me..."

"That's a good point." said Della Harlow.

"I'm not sure that our Citizens know where the lines are." replied Sheriff Allgood.

"They don't." I replied. "But with racial tensions all over the Nation, and with some issues I've been working on with the FBI: I've been working with the Chief and my Detective leadership on a plan of mobile or rolling coverage of the County. Let's say a riot broke out in the Tenderloin District. Precinct 2 and the SWAT Teams could move in to handle it, but for backup and reserves, we would have 1st Precinct send some of their people to help, then some of 3d Precinct's people would come in to reinforce 1st Precinct and Downtown. We had the reverse of that at Friday's game... 1st Precinct reinforced 3d Precinct, and 2nd Precinct and some of 1st remained on alert to make sure any problems didn't spread."

"All of that is for another discussion." said the Sheriff. I noticed the Chief's neck flush red a bit, and realized there was an issue there as the Sheriff continued "Don, I'm actually surprised... this is your big chance to crush Precincts once and for all... and maybe the last month you'll ever get to do it."

"And I can't guarantee success in fully crushing Precincts." said John Colby. "In additon to Reginald B.F. Lewis... which brings up the racial lines you mentioned... you might be surprised to hear that Ian McGhillie, normally a friend to us, is also a friend of those that want to keep Precincts."

"Really?" asked the Sheriff, surprised.

"Yes, Sheriff." I said. "McGhillie's son is a Uniformed Officer, and a good Officer, I might add; he is being monitored for promotion. But he and a good number of other Uniformed Officers favor Precincts, as does the Union. But if cutting it down to two Precincts is what I'm offered... I'll take it, and we'll irrevocably burn the bridges of any consequences when we get to them."

"Guess who gets to write that proposal up, Mr. Crowbar?" said the Chief with twinkling eyes.

"Oh, you bet I'll do it." I said. "That way, I get to insert the goodies that I want into the proposal."

"Smart man." said the Chief. "Keep that up, and you might get to carry a crowbar around here." There was some chuckling at that.

"I look forward to reading that proposal, also." said the Sheriff, with much more formality in his voice. "Okay, there is one other issue. Charles?"

Chief of Staff Oswald said "We have a real thorny issue coming up. Robert Brownlee's lawsuit will be coming up soon. The word I'm getting from the Courthouse grapevine is that it is very possible that it will be given a lot more favorable consideration that we thought possible at first. Our plan to put him into the Public Health Department is being challenged fiercely by Loran Michaels."

Oswald continued: "Now if Michaels wins the vacant Council seat, we can probably shoehorn Brownlee into Public Health with a lot less resistance. But if Peterson or Sorrells wins the seat, then it is very possible Brownlee could be put back in the Police Department."

"Where?" asked Della Harlow. "You try to take me out of my position, and you'll have two lawsuits... one of them being a gender-based Federal civil suit."

"You're not going anywhere, Della." I said with some authority in my voice. "Brownlee won't make it past the Duty Desk if they try to reinstate him to the TCPD."

"For all your bravado, Commander," said the Sheriff, "the Courts won't brook that kind of resistance."

"I won't have to do a thing." I said. "There will be a hundred Police Officers barring his way before he even gets to me."

"That's not what I mean." said Allgood. "Look, I know the entire TCPD might walk off the job if they try to put Brownlee back onto the Force, but I'm looking at a more political and legal solution. As I was telling the Police and Fire Chiefs earlier... plug all the holes, don't give the Courts nor the Council the slightest crack to push Brownlee through."

"Brownlee enjoys having his face pushed into cracks." I murmured... just a bit too loudly. Della and Colby began laughing, and Oswald chuckled. Daniel Allgood was much less amused, and the Chief looked at me in the same manner as some of my former schoolteachers in Apple Grove had occasion to do.

"Mr. Crowbarrrrr..." admonished the Chief, "the truth of that statement notwithstanding, what I need from you now is a solution to this Police Department's prob-lemmmmm."

"Yes sir." I said. "Forgive my little slip of the tongue, there."

Deputy Oswald said "One thing Brownlee's team is working on with Cook and Carnes to present to the Court is to create a position of 'Assistant Chief', with the same rank as the Commander and Deputy Chief. Brownlee gets put in that position, with duties something along the lines of overseeing the Precincts, like a supercharged Captain of Uniformed Officers."