Time Flies Ch. 01

"What names have you herrrrrrrd, Mr. Crowbarrrrr?" asked the Chief.

"I've heard that State Senator Corey Coons from The City might run." I said. "He's relatively young, he's black, and he says all the 'right things' (air quotes made) that Democrats want to hear without being considered extreme or polarizing like Maxine Watts is."

I continued: "I've also heard the name of State Representative Hoyt Stenson from Jacksonville. He's the Majority Whip in the State House, but he's white, elderly, and much more moderate than most Democrats. His selling point is that he's been a die-hard advocate for impeaching Governor Jared even when other Democrats weren't obsessed with it... like they are now."

"So yoooooooo are not running for any office, Mr. Crowbar?" asked the Chief. Even though he said it humorously, I looked over my shoulder at him with a look of mock horror.

"Pleeeeease tell me you're not serious, Chief..." I said. My Angels laughed most merrily.

"By the way," said Teresa, "that was a fun party yesterday. Betsy loved it."

"Yeah she did." Cindy said happily. "I can't believe she's two years old today..."

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

Paulina Patterson blew past D.A. Walters's assistant and into Walters's office.

"Don't you knock?" Walters asked angrily as she looked up.

"What is this?" Paulina said angrily, holding up her cellphone with the video of what Ripley had said to Commander Troy. "WHAT IS THIS?"

"Calm down, for God's sake." Miriam said.

"MY DAUGHTER!" Paulina yelled. "YOUR Investigator said that about MY daughter!"

"And I've fired him, okay?" Miriam said, trying to remain calm.

"No, it's NOT okay!" yelled Paulina. "Did you TELL him to say that?"

"No!" Walters said, looking right at Paulina for the first time. "I didn't tell him to say that at all!"

Paulina took a couple of breaths to control her anger, then said "Why shouldn't I go file a racial discrimination lawsuit against you? Why shouldn't I go do that right now? And call a Press Conference and give them this video, and tell them that YOU told him to say that about my little girl? WHY NOT?"

"Because it's not true." Walters said. Then she got her hackles up and said "But if you think I did, go ahead, go make the complaint. And leave your resignation on my desk on your way out. Or, you can accept my word that I did not tell him to say that, accept that I've fired him, and get back to work... on MCD cases."

"Oh, you think you can bribe me with that?" said Paulina.

"Then what the hell do you want?" Miriam all but yelled.

"YOUR RESIGNATION!" screamed Paulina.

"YOU'RE NOT GETTING IT!" Miriam yelled back. "I'm not talking to you about this any more. Get out of my office."

"This is NOT the end of this!" Paulina hissed. She turned and stalked out of the office.

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

9:00am, Monday, January 6th. The entire Detective Corps as well as all the Precinct Leadership congregated in Classroom 'J' at the 'invitation' of the Town & County Police Commander. The room was full, even though the desk-chairs had been removed and replaced by rows of folding chairs. The Chief, Sheriff, and Deputy Chief also were in attendance, and sat up front. The Sheriff's Chief of Staff (Commander) Oswald and Sr. Deputy Sheriff (Lt. Commander) Louis Bailey were also present. Behind them were D.A. Miriam Walters, ADA Franklin Washington, and two persons in civilian clothing, not suits and ties, but regular casual clothing.

"Thank you for coming, everyone." I said. "Happy New Year, for those I haven't had a chance to say that to." I paused and then said "With the new year, we are making some structural changes. One move had caused a domino effect, so all of you and indeed, all of the Police Force is affected. So I'm here to make those announcements."

"Announcements, announcements, annouuuunce-ments!
A horrible way to die, a horrible way to die,
A horrible thing to be talked to death, a horrible way to die.
Announcements, announcements, announce-ments!"

That was everyone. The Detectives continued it:

"Words of wisdom, words of wisdom,
Here they come, here they come!
Many words of wisdom, many words of wisdom,
Dumb dumb dumb. Dumb dumb dumb."

I thought that was it, but my Angels had other ideas:

"We lost our cow, we lost our cow,
we have no time, for your bull now!
We found our cow, we found our cow,
we have some time, for your bull now.
SPEAK FREAK!"

Everyone applauded, including me. The Sheriff's mustaches were twitching most merrily, giving me an idea who'd taught these Police Officers how to be rowdy... not that they needed help. I also observed that Miriam Walters looked utterly disgusted, as if our fun was totally beneath her.

"Okay, now that you've gotten that out of your systems," I said, to some laughter, "let's proceed. First of all, this is technically a lateral move, but in reality it's a promotion, certainly an increase in responsibilities. We are moving Lieutenant Micah Rudistan to the Vice Lieutenant position, effective last Saturday." There was applause for Rudistan, who looked jovial but blushed a little bit.

"Next," I said, "Lieutenant DeLong will laterally move from 1st Precinct to 2nd Precinct, as the 2nd Precinct Lieutenant, effective last Saturday." Applause for DeLong.

"And Senior Sergeant Roy McGhillie will be moving to 1st Precinct, also effective last Saturday." I said. "The 1st Precinct Lieutenant position is not being formally filled right away, and I expect Sergeant McGhillie will be doing some of that work. So best wishes to all of you guys." Applause for all.

"Next," I said, "D.A. Walters is here with an annou----- naah, I better not say it. D.A. Walters?"

Miriam Walters came up as I sat down between the Chief and Cindy in the front row. "Thank you, Commander." she said, her voice stiff and formal. "First of all, I'd like to compliment you on the actions of your Officers over the weekend, who made arrests well within protocols and not using excessive force. With tensions between Police and some Citizens very high in many places, such as the City, your good conduct is very helpful to keeping things in hand."

There were some looks around the room, some wondering what Miriam was talking about, and some wondering why she was bringing it up here and now.

Miriam continued: "I want you, especially you Detectives, to meet the District Attorney's Office's two Investigators that we recently hired. First is Artis Lattimore..." Lattimore stood up, then Walters said "And Greg Mitchum."

Artis Lattimore was black, not that tall, fairly stocky build, with a thin and closely trimmed beard. I was wondering if that was getting to be a trend within the black community, as Ripley had had a similar beard. Lattimore looked to be well into his 30s, and definitely looked older than Ripley.

Greg Mitchum was white, looked to be in his 40s, was tall and lean with graying brown hair. His face looked like an ex-cop that had seen a lot of bad stuff in his years.

Miriam Walters said "Chief, Mr. Lattimore is prepared to give his talk on gang activity now. Do you want everyone here? Or just the Vice Detectives?"

"Since we're all here," the Chief wisely said, "let's have everyone hear it all at once."

Artis Lattimore came up. His voice was a bit scratchy and not very deep. "Thank you, Ms. Walters." he said. "First about me. I was a D.A. Investigator in the City, and before that I was a Vice cop there."

"Why'd you leave the City?" Tanya Perlman asked. "It's a lot more exciting over there than it is over here."

"I took up Ms. Walters's offer to come here." said Lattimore. "I'm getting older. And I've heard that it's plenty exciting over here." There were some chuckles at that.

Lattimore started: "What we've found in the past few months is that the rapper T-Square has gotten completely out of the drugs and gambling businesses. His one-time chief lieutenant, T-Mac, took over the drug trade into the County, possibly if not likely in a partnership with the man we know as 'The Teacher'. He-------"

"I can tell you right now." said Captain Damien Thompson, "that The Teacher has no part in any drug operations. He doesn't touch that stuff."

"What, you know him or something?" Lattimore fired back. I don't think he knew that The Teacher was Captain Thompson's uncle.

"Mr. Lattimore," I said authoritatively, "do not speak disrespectfully to my Officers again. Carry on with your briefing."

Lattimore's eyes had flashed a bit of fire, but he went on. "You guys can take this advice, or not. My intel shows The Teacher's organization as having ties to T-Mac. Anyway, there are two rising groups of players in the markets. One group calls themselves the 'Block House Boyz', they're mostly black and are working the Southwestern Ghetto. The other group is branching out from the City. They're Hispanic, and call themselves 'The Eighth Street Latinos'."

"The Block House Boyz are led by Jacquez Wilson." said Lattimore. "He is one of the meanest individuals you well ever hope not to meet. He was a boxer, and it is said he can kill with one punch of his fist. He is also said to be proficient in martial arts.

"Bring him on!" said Deputy Chief Cindy Ross.

"Uh, seriously, ma'am," said a surprised Lattimore, "he's scary good. Word has it he whipped the Rodrigo-san in personal combat, put a real hurting on him."

"That is scary good." I said. "Keep going, Mr. Lattimore."

Lattimore: "He is also rabidly anti-Police, and may be involved with shootings at Officers here and in other counties in this region of the State. He's believed to be someone that provides manpower to the anarchist demonstrators you've seen from time to time."

Lattimore went on: "We don't know much about The Eighth Street Latinos nor their leadership, at least not around here. They've branched out from the City to Midtown, Southport, and this County in our State; and to Acropolis City in the State east of the City. They provide the dime bag sellers product, and are heavily involved in prostitution in the City. We think they'll try to set up something similar here."

"Thank you for that report." said Captain Tanya Perlman. "I'm going to be asking you to talk more with my Vice Squad on the details of this. Mr. Mitchum, do you want to say a few words?"

Greg Mitchum got up and came to the podium and said "I'm Greg Mitchum. My speciality is finance-related crimes, mostly related to laundering of drug money and money pipelines within corrupt businesses. I don't have any current information for you. I look forward to working with you..."

I handed Tanya a note. It said "Do not let them into the Intel Center, not for a tour nor for any other reason." Tanya nodded.

After Mitchum finished, I said to D.A. Walters "Are there any other D.A. Investigators? At all?"

"No, those two are the only ones we currently employ." said Walters.

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

"I don't know how you knew," Tanya said to me as the Command Group and my Angels gathered in the Chief's Conference Room, "but Miriam Walters kept asking for a tour of the Intel Center, and I finally just told her 'no'. She was getting huffy about it, and then Commander Croyle came up and just looked at her, and she got on out of here."

"Just remember," I said, "Miriam Walters is not the boss of any TCPD Officer, from the Chief to the newest Rookie recruit. You do not answer to her, nor take orders from her."

"Soooooo," said the Chief, to change the subject, "why do you not want them to see the Intel Center, Mr. Crowbar?"

"I don't want them to know what we have." I said. "And I definitely don't want them to get any ideas that that particular resource is available to them. Chief, Sheriff, I don't mind Miriam Walters having Investigators, if it helps them do their jobs. But I don't trust her motives anymore, either. For example, during the altercation Friday night, I remember seeing Mitchum in the parking lot at Luigi's. A distance away, but he was there. And he likely was recording the incident for Walters."

"Is he on any of our videotapes?" asked the Chief.

"No sir, he stayed well back." I said. "I saw him as we were coming in, when I was looking over the whole parking lot, but I don't have video confirmation."

"Not that you need it." growled Sheriff Griswold.

"So why did it take this long for Walters to introduce those guys?" asked Tanya. "And it's obvious Lattimore has been working on what he told us for some time."

"I think it's obvious that Miriam avoided introducing them because she was setting up altercations to 'test' the Police... or more accurately, 'entrap' them." I said. "And she realized when I went up there Friday and told every Officer there who Jackson Ripley was and who he was working for that it was blown, so she came correct with the meeting today."

"What pisses me off," said Teresa Croyle, "is that she would 'test' my Officers in the first place. Who the hell does she think she is?"

"Let me plant this thought into your fertile young miiiiinds." said the Chief. "What if Ms. Walters did that with truly good intentions? What if she meant well, that she genuinely was testing us to make sure the Police didn't do anything wrong for when the real 'tests' (air quotes) begin?"

For some reason, everyone was looking at me. I just said "Chief, do you know something we don't?"

"Only that that's what she told me this morning. And she apologized and said she would not attempt anything like that again." said Moynahan. "She also told me she fired that scumbag over what he said to yooooo, Mr. Crowbar. She said she had nothing to do with that."

"Then who DID have him say that to me?" I asked. "Seriously... he said it knowing that Penis Holder has been saying that to rile me up. He knew that was a hot button for me. And when I walked up to him, he already knew who I was. My point is that what he said to me was pre-planned! He didn't just dream it up on the fly. So, if Walters didn't tell him to do it, who did?"

"Maybe the Press told him to say it." said Tanya.

Teresa replied immediately: "And that would mean that the Press knew that Miriam was going to run her little 'test' (air quotes) of the TCPD. And that comes back full circle to Miriam Walters." She turned and said "I'm sorry, Chief, but I think Commander Troy is right. Walters is part of the problem, here, and she's not off the hook with me."

"All right, folks." said the Sheriff, standing up. "This has to be said. You are where you are because you are the best of the best. And now you have to show me that you're the best of the best, and that your professionalism takes precedence over your personal feelings, and even over the feelings I know you have for your families."

Sheriff Griswold: "We have to work with the D.A.'s Office, and they have to work with us. D.A. Walters was wrong to do what she did, and I think she knows it now. I'm willing to accept, for now, that she did not have that disgusting slug say what he said to Don. So we're going to take a step back from this cliff, and we're going to find a way to get our jobs done and get these perps we arrest put in prison."

Griswold: "Now what I recommend is that the ADAs work with the Detectives, their Lieutenants, and up to Captain Perlman. Unless Commander Troy personally solves the case... which half the time he does... he can be above it, and make like Bowser and 'supervise'. Is that something we can all do?"

Everyone nodded... except Tanya. "May I speak freely, Sheriff?"

"I thought that was what we were doing when we met like this." growled the Sheriff. "Go ahead."

Tanya said "I don't want to be put in a position like I once felt like I was between the FBI and the TCPD, because of my relationship with Jack Muscone. And I'm feeling that way right now. I'll just say right now, if Miriam Walters tries to use me as an end run around Commander Troy, I won't play the game. I will not keep anything from him; in fact, if Miriam or her people try to put me in a bad position, the first thing I'm doing is driving into the Commander's office and telling him what's going on. If that's a problem, say so now."

Sheriff Griswold smiled under his mustaches. "That's exactly what I want to hear, and you're right to say it. No, I am not asking you to compromise your principles nor do anything that you think would betray the TCPD or your superior Officers in any way, and that goes double for Crowbar."

"I agreeeeeee." said the Chief. "Sheriff, with your permission, I'll handle D.A. Walters, and we'll work out some protocols and lines of communication... and they will include the Iron Crowbar..."

Part 5 - The Natty

"Damn, what a long day." I said as Laura and I put out snacks on the dining room table at The Cabin.

"I heard." said Laura. "Paulina came to my office this morning after her fight with Miriam Walters. I don't think I've ever seen Paulina that bitterly angry."

"Er, what fight?" I asked.

"You don't know?" Laura replied.

"All I know," I said, "is that Paulina was not at the meeting at TCPD Headquarters with the D.A. and her new Investigators. Then we were busy all day processing new information on drug gangs, and I never got a call from Paulina. So what happened?"

Laura told me that Paulina had gone to her (Laura's) office and told the story of her (Paulina) confronting Miriam over what was said about Tasha, and that Laura and Paulina had talked about things for a long time.

"Is Paulina coming over tonight?" I asked.

"She's already here." Laura said. "She's upstairs, in bed. I gave her a sedative. That's what you get for not even going up to change clothes." Yes, I was still in my uniform.

"I'll change in my office, then." I said. I went and did so, before the guests arrived.

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

Joining me for the Natty were Carole, Marie, Tasha, six boys, Teresa, Todd, Edward Steele, Selena Steele, Sheriff Griswold, and the redoubtable Bowser and Buddy.

Stephanie Steele had 'telescope time' all night, and wasn't really worried about football, anyway. Cindy had told us that Maggie and Phyllis would be keeping Betsy (and having their own little birthday party for her) while Cindy and Callie watched at the Country Music Palace... a place I knew to be a Bulldogs stronghold that would be rooting strongly for the Crimson Tide of Alabama.

As usual, I had Wildcat Radio on, and was wearing headphones to hear it. The radio was seconds ahead of the television picture, so I'd hear "And it is complete!" before Jamaal Washington actually caught the pass on the screen.

It was a tough, defensive battle. In a 3-3 tie, I listened as we watched Alabama line up for a field goal. "Alabama doesn't give their kickers scholarships." said the Wildcat Radio color analyst. "Placekicking may be their weakest link."

"AND IT'S BLOCKED!" the announcer yelled into my ears. "And the Wildcats pick it up, Gregg Scott has it, and he runs it all the way back for a Wildcats TOUCHDOWN!!"

Most of us cheered mightily, especially Carole and Marie, which disturrrrrbed Bowser. He picked himself up and went over to the corner, watching from a distance. Meanwhile, Teresa was punching Todd on the shoulder, and Todd did not look overly amused at the Wildcats score nor the beating he was taking. I got a text that said "Hear us roar!" It was from Melina Allgood.

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

Late in the second quarter, Alabama was driving. "And they're on the Wildcat 13 yard line, and there's the pass to the corner and... it's broken up! It's broken up! Gregg Scott came over and tipped the ball away at the last second! And Alabama will have to try another field goal..." This time it was good, and the Wildcats led 10-6 at halftime.