Time Flies Ch. 04

"So that's it." I said, getting up. "Why don't you and your lawyer talk amongst yourselves about what you want to do. I can't promise a plea deal on behalf of the Feds, and I can't offer much more than death off the table. But you guys decide..."

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

I went to my office, and asked Karina to give me a moment alone with Paulina. Once alone, I told her what Ripley's last words had been.

"He came correct, said he was sorry." I said. "He was lying there dying, and that is what he wanted to say to me, more than telling who'd set him up to die. He's gone now; no reason to keep up the hate with him."

"Yeah." said Paulina. "But it doesn't excuse Miriam Walters. And speaking of her, I think she may pull a 'Krasney', and give these two bastards to the Feds."

"Well," I said, "if and when I tell her that she has to be re-elected D.A. this November, and a huge case like this one would be most very good for her election chances, she might reconsider."

"Playing Devil's Advocate," Paulina said, "Do you want these cases? The Feds can do a lot more since State lines were crossed."

"True." I said. "But we busted a dirty DEA Agent. I don't want them sweeping that under the rug. There's too much of that going on in Washington, D.C. now."

There was a knock on my door, and Cindy looked in. "Don, Paulina, you're both needed in I-1. Hamm wants to confess in exchange for a deal..."

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

We got to I-1, and found that H.J. Lynch wanted more time to talk Hamm out of confessing. So as we waited for them to to end their conversation, Owen Lange asked to speak to me in my office. He also asked Karina White to come in.

"First of all, Commander," said Lange, "no matter what the fallout, that was as brilliant a piece of Detective work as any I've ever seen. Very well done."

"It was a team effort, sir." I said.

"I will speak to your Sheriff about your modesty." Lange said, showing he knew the running joke. "But truly, you put the pieces together, busted a dirty Agent, and made it clear you're not to be trifled with. Having said that, I have some news for you both. You remember Curtis Halsey of the BATFE?"

"How could we forget?" I asked witheringly. Karina's attractive face had turned ugly at the mention of Halsey's name.

"He's been what we call 'cross-sworn' into the FBI." said Lange. "More accurately, he's been attached to an FBI unit that's been assembled in secret. One member of it is from the FBI's OPR office. Guy named Martin Nash. Ever heard of him?"

"Him?" I said. "Out of sight, out of mind with me. Just kidding. So what's the punch line?"

"This group is working with Bob Rovers's BAU team, as well." said Lange. "And some others here and there. It's a Who's Who of Swamp Frogs." He peered at me and said "You don't seem all that surprised, Commander."

"I'm not." I said. "And the next thing you're going to tell me is that Dr. Robin Isley is a part of it."

"Not much gets past you, Commander." said Lange. "And what's worse, I have information that they're trickling into this region. Some, including Nash, are in the City. But others have been seen in Midtown, meeting with State Legislators. And Halsey is lurking just over the State Line, in Hammondsville. What I don't know, is why. Any ideas?"

"Yes sir." I said. "And all I'll say is that we better wrap up warm. There's an East Wind blowing..."

Part 19 - Dirty Agent, Dirty Laundry

8:00pm, Friday, January 10th. I went into Interrogation-2, this time with EAD Owen Lange. Two Uniformed Officers (Goodwright and Laurer) were watching Fred Merkle, even though he was handcuffed to the ring of the table. His attorney had just arrived: Gwen Munson of Gresham & Mason, P.C.

"I can't wait to see the warrant under which you obtained my client's service weapon." she snarled before we even got seated.

"Let's keep things tidy, shall we?" I said. I read Merkle his considerable legal rights from the card. He declined to respond when I asked if he understood.

"As to the warrant, Ms. Munson," I said, "ADA Patterson has already taken care of that with Judge Folsom. I had exigent circumstances and not enough time to get the warrant ahead of time, and the Judge agreed and issued it after-the-fact, as well as a fresh one to search Merkle's properties."

"He's a Federal Agent." said Munson. "He was working undercover. Even if he did shoot Fisher, and this is not an admission that he did, he could've done it in the line of duty, for good reason."

"It won't do, Ms. Munson. It won't do." I said. I then put my elbows on the table and leaned forward and said "In fact... why don't I tell you what happened, Agent Merkle, and you just correct me where I go astray."

Merkle was looking at me with hatred in his eyes, but also disbelief. Gwen Munson looked like she'd seen this movie before, and was not happy that she was having to sit through another presentation. I was later told that Cindy Ross fist-pumped and hissed a "Yessss!" in the Monitor Room.

"You've been a DEA Agent for some years now," I said, "toiling away on a Government salary, grueling work, often in existential danger. And the drug pushers you were trying to bust... they were making millions of dollars, leading good lives until they were caught... if they were caught at all. And your work seemed to be for nothing You weren't getting promotions that other, better DEA Agents like Dwight Stevens and Juan Morales were. It wore you down, and you finally went over the cliff."

Your Iron Crowbar: "You were the one that busted James Hamm with a hundred pounds of marijuana in the City. At first you were going to go in and offer Hamm the standard deal... reduce the charges considerably if he flipped and became a C.I. for you. But Hamm rejected the deal... seems he already had considerably powerful backing, and knew he did not need you."

"Am I right that that's when Satan entered your heart, and turned you to the Dark Side?" I asked. "Because that's when you saw the dark light. Hamm made bail, and you approached him again... but this time with a different deal. In exchange for a percentage of his cuts, you'd give him protection, and a whole lot more. He took the deal, and the cash finally started flowing into your coffers. You had him sell drugs you confiscated, and use cash you confiscated to buy drugs."

I sat back, then said "Hamm was an exceptionally careful man. There's a comic strip where the garbage man is literally a theoretical physicist or something like that. Hamm was working the Sanitation Department, but had far more brains than that job required. He came up with a code system for drug buys and sales. He put a man on his payroll, a man named Carl Fisher. Fisher received texts on his burners, but did not forward them. He just showed them to Hamm, or wrote a note that Hamm could later burn after reading it. In any case, nothing ever traced Fisher to Hamm... except eyewitness testimony."

"And you had that, too." I said. "You had Jackson Ripley as well as other Agents and C.I.s. You told them that you were building a case, so they'd run the drug buys and sales while you sat in the background. Only on very rare occasion did you have to show up yourself, and Hamm never did when you had to be there."

"What Hamm didn't know," I continued, "is that you'd recruited Fisher as one of your C.I.s... well, you thought you did. I told you to your face the other day that I didn't understand why Fisher would become your C.I., that he had no reason to. But later on, I saw that he didn't become your C.I., he went to work for you because you were dirty."

"Proves nothing." Gwen Munson said.

"It was one of the 'edge' pieces in the puzzle." I said. "The next thing that happened was that Fisher either got greedy, or was in league with Hamm to make a huge score. He knew more about the code than either you or Hamm realized, and over time he figured out where the locations were. What he didn't know, was the time differential."

I went on: "He also learned that there was an 'abort' signal, which was putting a trash can in the parking lot outside Hamm's window under a different light post than normal. On the day of the murder, Fisher went and moved the trash can, then he himself went to the meeting spot."

Your Iron Crowbar: "Fisher goes to the meeting, and is shocked to see that you are on the other end of the sale. And you didn't let him get away: you double-tapped him. Then you called in Ripley and your other security guys, told them that you shot him in self-defense but the body had to be moved to protect the undercover operation. So you and your group moved Fisher's body to where it would be easily found."

Me: "But you made one mistake. You assumed Fisher knew the code, and knew to change his watch. So you moved it back 40 minutes. But Fisher did not know the code; his watch was showing the correct time! And so when we found his body, his watch showed 40 minutes behind the correct time."

I saw the first glimmer of a change of facial expression on Merkle's face, as he realized his error. I drove on with the narrative:

"Once the body was moved, you knew you had to clean up the mess, and that's what you began doing. Ripley was beginning to realize that you weren't making busts, you were making real drug deals, so you knew you had to eliminate him. So you were going to eliminate him and Hamm in one fell swoop, and you'd be the only one left alive to tell the tale. But that went wrong, also: the TCPD showed up."

"Hamm shot Ripley, in accordance to the story you told him to tell, saying you'd back him up." I said. "My dashcam shows that Ripley did not jump in front of you to save you... you grabbed him and pulled him in front of you! But you didn't have time to shoot Hamm.. .and now he's realized what you were going to do to him, and he's turned on you in exchange for a plea deal. It's over, Merkle. I have you ice... stone... cold."

Gwen Munson said "Speculation is not evidence. And I think we'll have a strong, strong case to get the gun thrown out as evidence. Jackson Ripley's dead, so he won't be testifying. And you're going to pin your hopes, and your reputation, on the testimony of a desperate man who shot dead a Federal Agent, and would say anything to squirm out of it?"

I smiled as I said "Thank you for the compliment about my reputation. And since you know my reputation, you know I don't bluff... I don't need to. The evidence will hold up, and I am going to give the ADA -and- the U.S. Attorney a case that will get your client on two Death Rows. And my only regret... is that only one Government entity can execute him."

"I need to talk to my client." Gwen Munson said. We exited the room, leaving them alone.

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

"Which one do you Feds want?" I asked EAD Owen Lange as we stood in the anteroom and watched Gwen and Merkle talk.

"We want them both." said Lange. "But Hamm is cutting deals with your ADA and our U.S. Attorney." Indeed, Paulina and U.S. Attorney John Jones had agreed to take death off the table if Hamm cooperated, and Hamm was already talking. I had used some of his information in my narrative to Merkle and Munson, such as the 'abort' signal of the moved trash can.

"Merkle is going to be a tough conviction without Hamm's testimony." said Lange. "I'm concerned that the Swamp Frogs might convince a Federal judge to not give Hamm the plea deal. Then whatever Hamm has said won't be admissible, and then this little bitch attorney will get the handgun evidence thrown out. I know you wanted to get Merkle's gun as fast as you could, but if you'd waited for a warrant, we'd have an ironclad case."

"We do already." I said. "As long as we keep primary jurisdiction for the murders. At the very least, let us run our cases concurrently. I agree with you that it could get dicey if the Feds get sole custody of them both."

"Not sure how much I can do." said Lange.

"You're an Executive Assistant Director of the FBI." I said. "You can do one hell of a lot."

"I'll be honest with you, Don." said Lange. "It may ride on your District Attorney, Miriam Walters. If she doesn't fight like hell to keep your local noses in this, the Feds will run over you..."

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

Meanwhile, Gwen Munson was talking with Merkle. "Listen," she said, "just don't say anything. You haven't had to invoke yet, but don't hesitate to do so. Don't let them talk to you without me present. Especially don't let that bastard Don Troy even speak to you without screaming for me to be present."

"Sure." said Merkle. "What's your game plan? From what Troy was saying, it sounded like Hamm may be talking."

Munson said "My first priority is to get this under Federal jurisdiction, and get you completely away from Donald Troy's County. And then I've got to get Hamm into Federal custody, also. Then we'll work on the Federal judge, hopefully anyone but K.M. Landis, to not give Hamm any deal that your dipshit U.S. Attorney might've agreed to. It's going to to be a tough fight, but we can beat that bastard Troy... especially once he gets taken down a few notches... as he's about to be."

Part 20 - The Gathering Storm

2:00pm, Saturday, January 11th. I was trying to put a dent into the massive amount of paperwork the Fisher case had created when Jack Muscone came to my office. I had him sit down in a hot chair.

"Now that we know where to look," Muscone said, "were getting a ton of stuff on Merkle. He had a house northeast of Southport, and we found a safe room with about 20 kilos of 'China White' and over $100,000 in cash."

"Wow." I said. "Twenty keys is one hell of a lot."

"Yeah, it is." agreed Muscone. "Merkle won't talk to either your guys our our guys without a deal, and Gwen Munson is trying like hell to get a Federal Judge to give the Feds sole jurisdiction in the case. Judge K.M. Landis has denied her so far, but she's appealing as well as going judge-shopping."

"I wouldn't mind giving the Feds every bit of the drug case." I said. "But murder in the first degree is our jurisdiction, especially since Fisher wasn't a Federal Agent... was he?"

"No, he wasn't." said Muscone. "But Munson is saying he was Merkle's C.I., so the case could come under Federal pervue. That's a crock, but as you know, she'll try anything. Anyhoo, I wanted to ask if you had any theories on why he was keeping that kind of weight in his house?"

I said "Well... as I submitted in my written report to the TCPD, the D.A.'s Office, the FBI and the DEA, Hamm admitted that he was supplying the 'Smooth White Boys' on Campus with product, and that he was being supplied by Merkle or his proxies. I believe Merkle was being supplied by Marcie Harper, but after my Angels and the Junior Crowbar put her out of business," (Author's note: 'Schoolhouse Rock'.) "he had to find other sources, and maybe you can tell me more about that. So my guess is that Merkle was taking a kilo here and a kilo there from drug busts to build up his inventory because the supply was sporadic and erratic after Marcie was busted."

Muscone said "We're thinking on similar lines. Like you said, Marcie Harper was his likely supplier. His name was not on her infamous 'naughty list', so he may have been working through proxies, or she was paying him 'tribute' to not bust her------ what?"

I was shaking my head vigorously in disagreement. "Marcie would not have played that game. If Merkle had tried that, he'd have been found floating in the River."

Jack said "Well, we don't insist on it. But we are starting to get some information from C.I.s in Southport that Merkle was shaking people down, getting a cut of product, not cash but product, in exchange for leaving their operations alone. And Ripley kept some notes, and he was beginning to realize that some of the busts in Turpin Heights were coming up short between the time the product was seized and when it got to the evidence rooms. And some of the recovered bricks in Merkle's house correspond to what was seized."

"So he kept some," I said, "to make sure he could supply his customers if another 'Marcie Harper' event happened, and the supply got temporarily cut off."

"Yep." said Muscone. "And that's too bad in a way... if Merkle had been buying from someone, we might could've made another huge bust------"

*BRING!* *BRING!* *BRING!* *BRING!*

It was my cellphone, I answered it, then said to Muscone "The Chief has asked both of us to appear in his Conference Room."

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

When we came into the Chief's Conference Room, we saw that the Chief was not alone. With him were D.A. Miriam Walters, and U.S. Attorney John Jones. I took my seat to the Chief's left and Muscone sat to my left, facing the legal eagles.

"What we are discussssinggggg," drawled the Chief, "is the jurisdictional issue between our County, the State, and the Feds."

"SAC Muscone and I were discussing that, as well." I said, with a sideways glance at Muscone. "I guess he was buttering me up for this meeting?"

"No." said Muscone. "I don't play games like that, especially with you, Dog. I'm waiting like you are to hear what they've decided."

"And you have decided," I said to the others, "otherwise we would not be in here now."

"We want your help in the decision, Mr. Crowbar." the Chief said. No one present was fooled.

"Just tell me." I said, suddenly growing weary of the games.

D.A. Walters said "We've agreed that the drug crimes should be left with the DEA and the U.S. Attorney. It's the murder of Fisher that's our only sticking point. They're making the argument that Fisher was a C.I. for Merkle, so they can make a Federal murder case. I'm not so sure."

"Neither am I." I said. "I'm definitely not sure Fisher was a C.I. for Merkle. Certainly there's no documentation of it." John Jones peered at me, realizing I knew more than he had expected me to know.

Jones said "We're also facing the problem of Merkle's attorney, Gwen Munson. She is pulling out every stop to get the murder case out of your local Courts and into Federal Court. She's also citing your warrantless confiscation of Merkle's gun in an attempt to get the charges dropped altogether."

"Soooo," I said, "Munson is citing that legitimate confiscation of Merkle's gun as a reason to take the case out of local Courts... literally helping the Feds to keep their charges intact. Am I the only one that thinks that's... strange?" I saw everyone else in the room visibly react to that, as if I'd slapped them in their faces and made them beg for their mamas.

"By the way," I said, "if the gun confiscation, which I do think was legal, did take the hit, wouldn't that exclude everything the Feds have done from that point? And maybe that is the basis of Munson's desire to get the case solely into Federal jurisdiction?"

"Maybe." said Walters. "I personally think she wants to get it away from you, Commander. But that's not what worries me. I'm not trying to do a 'Krasney' on you, but I think it might be best if we hand this off to U.S. Attorney Jones and the Feds, and assist them where we can and should. You're already getting the credit for the bust, and that won't change. And if we let the Feds run with it, we won't have to fight a lot of small stuff."

"Obviously I'm not going to agree." I said. "First, while I want my Detectives and Officers to get the credit they deserve for their hard work, I am not worried about my own credit. And second, it's a matter of principle... we should keep what is ours. We can get this to and through trial with a conviction, and fairly easily, in my personal opinion."

Walters looked around for a second, then said "Commander, can I talk to you alone for a moment? Believe me, I would not ask if it weren't imperative."