Scavenger Hunt Ch. 02

After the broadcast, I expertly used the remote to turn off the television monitor, and my three Angels and I began the Angels Meeting. Cindy explained her presence: "My work is done. I've put it together, added the building changes you wanted, Don, and the presentation is all ready to go."

"What building changes?" Teresa asked.

I replied "Cafeterias here and at the Old Mill. Purely takeout, not really dining facilities like County Jail has, but Officers can buy breakfast or dinner. And a third interrogation room here at Headquarters."

Tanya said "You're gonna bust a hole in the wall to the gym, and convert the storeroom so I-3 is past I-2?"

Cindy said "No, because that's a load-bearing wall, and would be ten times as expensive as going the other way, and putting it to the right of I-1. The SWAT Team will have to find a new storage room for their stuff--- oh wait! You astutely mentioned a storeroom in the gym!" We all chuckled at that...

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

9:00am, Friday, October 8th. Captain of Detectives Claire Michaels invited us to a meeting in Classroom 'E'. In attendance were Lieutenants Rudistan, Warner, Washington, Parker, and Purvis. I was not surprised to see Pottsville PD Lieutenant Shane O'Brady in the House, as well.

I was surprised to see three FBI Agents in the room: SAC Jack Muscone, SAC Ashton Cardigan of this region's Cyber Division, and Special Agent Lindy Linares, once part of Muscone's 'Team Lazarus', and now working with Cardigan. Her raven-black hair was drilled into a frazzle of curls, as always. And her eyes devoured me as I came into the room... probably remembering our very pleasant sexual liaisons, as I was.

After Commander Croyle, Commander Muscone, Chief Moynahan, and I took our seats, Captain Michaels said "Lieutenant Purvis, bring in the others for our videoconference." Within a minute, Nell Bell of the Midtown PD was on one monitor, Lieutenant Eugene Graham of Southport PD was on another monitor, and Inspector Britt Maxwell of the SBI-OER was on a third monitor.

Claire Michaels said "I've only called in team leaders and Officers ranked Lieutenant and above, because the nature of what we're about to hear needs to be kept under wraps and not widely disseminated. We have some video data on our perps. We also will be getting a briefing from our FBI friends on Carlos Rojas, as well as the electronic signatures that Toyota was generating. Mr. Cardigan, would you like to go first?"

"Sure." said Cardigan. "Go ahead, Lindy."

"Yes sir." Lindy Linares said. "It's been a minute since I've seen you all, and it's good to see you again. What we have is some data from the transmitter in the Toyota Camry you captured. It's technically a burner phone with a SIM card, and set up as a wifi hot spot. It was only activated at times corresponding to this little band of jokers going out on their criminal missions. We were able to get dates and times as well as general locations, and we passed that information to your various Police Departments to see if you had any recorded video to look at."

"Wowwww." said Lieutenant Teddy Parker. "Just how long do you keep data like that?"

When Lindy didn't immediately answer, I said "Forever. And that's why this meeting is limited in attendance. As you know, or should know, the Federal Government built a facility in Utah, where they store the metadata of every cell phone call made in the United States, and a lot of stuff from abroad. And you know the Federal Government never gets rid of any records, ever."

"We actually keep a lot more than that," said SAC Ashton Cardigan, "but I'm certainly not going to go into that here and now. Suffice it to say that we were able to take that vehicle's transmitter's electronic signature and find correlating data as far as six months back."

"But what can we do with that data?" Britt Maxwell asked. "Virtually no jurisdiction keeps video data that long. Maybe a week at most."

I said "Unless... it's stored as evidence when a crime is committed, or a Police operation is taking place." As murmurs of understanding began, I continued: "And whenever these Toyota Gangs struck, we dutifully kept the data on our evidence servers. I also asked the other jurisdictions to also look at any such stored data. What did we find, guys?"

Nell Bell said "This particular group, who we are calling the 'Hotel' group after their email names, never appeared in Midtown, according to the FBI's data."

"That's true." said Cardigan.

Eugene Graham said "They showed up in Southport. We got a few video hits on them, but not a lot. And we didn't see anything like another car following them."

"Neither did we." said Christopher Purvis.

SAC Ashton Cardigan spoke up: "Let me show you our data, which we've put on a map." He plugged his laptop into the dock on the table, and a moment later a map of the Town & County came up, with some lines of various colors traced along some of the roads. On another monitor was information for Southport.

"They were careful." said Cardigan. "They only activated the device and the hotspot while their Toyota vehicle was in motion, and they turned it off before parking the vehicle wherever they were storing it. Ditto that for their cellphones, whose information mirrors what I'm showing you here."

Cardigan: "The red lines correspond to the times they robbed a convenience store. The yellow lines correspond to the times there was a robbery, but they were not in the vicinity of the store that was robbed. And the green lines, both here and in Southport, show where we have data of their movements, but there were no robberies of convenience stores at all."

Captain Claire Michaels said "August 28th. That was the night they beat our analytics. Look at how they were driving to one location, then made three right turns and a left, pretty much turning around, then hitting the two stores they hit."

Lieutenant Parker said "We weren't at that convenience store that night, ma'am. They must've seen something else that spooked them."

"Let's not go there just yet, please." I said, knowing what had spooked them: Swamp Frog Feds staking out the place.

To distract them further, I said "I am far, far more interested in those red lines and yellow lines that went near the Hospital and then down into Fraternity Row and the housing down there... and right by the Halfway House operated by our County Jail." (Author's note: 'Beethoven Virus', Ch. 02.) "Purvis, have someone grab their video of that night, if they still have it; see if that Toyota or any Toyota drove by there." Purvis made notes.

"This is great data, Ashton." gushed Tanya Muscone, praising her husband's colleague, and by default praising the FBI. "Don't you agree, Don? Uh, Don?"

I was in a reverie, a deep one. Teresa went for my red crowbar on the table, but my hand slid over it. "Don't... even... think about it." I said, my voice seemingly a million miles away. I finally snapped out of it.

"Okay," I said, giving orders, "Lieutenants Purvis, Graham, and Bell, I need you to gather records of every reported crime in your jurisdictions at or near the time of any Toyota Gang robberies, and also at the time of these so-far-unexplained red line times. Four hours on each side should be enough. Anything, anything at all, no matter how small or strange it may appear to be."

"What is it, Mister Crowbarrr?" asked the Chief.

I said "I was trying to remember the our duty logs for those days. There were some... strange crimes reported. A Coin Collector shop near the Mall was broken into, but nothing reported stolen. A couple of boxes of hospital O.R. scrubs, paper hats, masks, and gloves were reported missing from the outlet that supplies University Hospital and several of the clinics in the County after a break-in... just little stuff like that..."

Teresa said "Get hot, Purvis. The Iron Crowbar is on a hot scent." Purvis nodded and made notes.

Chief Moynahan said "What else do you havvvve, Mr. Cardigan?"

Ashton Cardigan said "We've busted our butts trying to find Carlos Rojas's burner phone, and also that fifth phone number that called Peter Segui's phone, including attempts to remotely activate and locate them. It's 'no joy' on either phone, but we did see that whenever the fifth phone was activated, it was in this County. It also was always outside, and was in places that had little to no videocamera coverage. We have an alert on it, so if it activates again, we'll know right away."

"Damn, they are careful, aren't they?" I mused. Then I said "I seriously doubt that that phone will ever activate again, now that we've busted this group of perps. And it says volumes to me that they know where the street and store cameras are located so that they can avoid them."

Tanya said "The Teacher could've given them that information."

"True." I said "Anything else, anyone?"

Jack Muscone said "Yeah, I got a whole lotta nuthin', just to say I shared it with you. First, we've been digging deep into Stubbs & Wheaton Venture Capital, LLC, a Nevada corporation. They had offices in Palmyra County; Cupertino, California; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Greensboro, North Carolina; and Charlotte, North Carolina. And (air quotes) 'had' was the correct tense; every one of those offices was shut down, emptied out, as if they did not exist, anymore."

Muscone: "They are well funded... still are. They have accounts as well as lines of credit with WorldBankTrust in Charlotte, which makes them one of the Little Boyz of the Big Boyzzz..."

"And Swamp Frogs." I said thoughtfully.

"Yep." Muscone replied agreeably. "Peter Segui and a man named Feng Xingshi were the two Officers and employees of the Palmyra County office. We obtained a warrant to search Feng's apartment. His cellphone and an Xbox were there, but his laptop computer was gone. And there were no papers, filed or otherwise, not even monthly bills nor copies of his tax returns. The food in the refrigerator was fresh, indicating he had been there recently. It looks like he hastily packed a suitcase, grabbed his laptop, and got out."

"Interesting." I said. "And that's not 'nuthin', Jack. That's... important info..." Needless to say, I was falling into a reverie. The Chief closed the meeting.

Part 7 - Go Stand In The Corner

11:05am, Friday, October 8th. Chief Moynahan called me and invited' me to come to the Chief's Conference Room. I immediately went there, and saw that the Chief and Sheriff Griswold were in the room. On the monitor in a videoconference call were SBI Director Wes 'Coldiron' Masters and SBI Inspector Britt Maxwell.

After we exchanged greetings and I sat down, Masters said "Don, we've actually had a request for SBI help. The Sheriff of Donnan County has requested our help with a quadruple murder down there."

"Where is Donnan County?" Chief Moynahan asked.

I said "In the southeast corner of the State, Chief. Just as we are the northwest corner County in the State, Donnan County is the southeast corner county. Their county seat, Griffith, has a population of about 10,000 people, and like most of the southeast of the State, it's virtually all farm fields."

"That's right." said Masters. "They found four bodies in a field just east of town. The Sheriff, whose name is Donnan, said it was very strange, and, quote, 'right up the Iron Crowbar's alley', so he asked if you personally could come down and look at it. He also said that if we had a top-notch Medical Examiner that could come with you, it would be appreciated if you brought him or her."

"Hold on one second." I said. I fished out my Police iPhone and called Teresa. When she answered, I asked "Is Shane O'Brady still here at Headquarters?... Okay, good. Ask him to come to the Chief's Conference Room."

A moment later, O'Brady arrived. After Masters went over the situation again, I said "I know you had plans for the weekend with Joan Laurer, but I'd appreciate it if you'd go down there with me today."

"Let me notify my Chief." O'Brady said as he fished out his cellphone.

Britt Maxwell said "How long will it take you to get down there?"

I said "At least five hours by SBI SUV. Our helicopter doesn't have the range to get there, and we'd have to worry about refueling it. A small plane could get us down there in a couple of hours, but by the time I secure one, get it fueled and all that, it'll take just as long, so the SUV is our best option. Tell them we'll be down there late this afternoon..."

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

I called Claire Michaels and Teresa Croyle into my office, and told them what was going on. "When are we leaving?" Teresa asked.

"We are not." I replied. "I'm going down with Shane O'Brady, as he is also an SBI Reservist. I want you to be 'Acting Commander' while I'm gone. I have a strong suspicion that this is intended to get me out of this County, like I was away last week. The location is as far away from us that we could possibly go and still be in the State."

I continued: "So run another operation to catch the next Toyota Gang cell that I suspect will be trying something tonight. But don't deploy obvious vans like we did last week. Let the Feds do that dirty work for us. I suspect the gang's likeliest targets will be here, here, and here." I pointed out locations on the map that corresponded to the Industrial District, which was south of Jefferson Avenue and north of the Tenderloin District.

I said "And I also need to tell you both something. Claire, I've mentioned before that I had information from confidential informants that Swamp Frog Feds were in our County. They have been seen in this office building." I brought up a photo of the building on my computer monitor to the side of my desk, which Claire could see, then I showed her its map location.

I said "I have a suspicion that Carlos Rojas's burner phone was found, and by these Swamp Frogs. I also suspect the phone will activate while I'm gone. Here's the thing: if its location is that building or anywhere within one block of it, do not go after it. Do not apply for a warrant for it, either. Make sure Intel and the Detectives know to not even apply for a warrant nor act upon catching it pinging without getting my personal permission first. Are we clear on that?"

"Yes sir." Claire said. "So you think all of this is to distract us while they rob more stores?"

"Yes." I replied...

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

I called the Medical Examiner's office and asked Martha the M.E. if I could take Kendell Ramsey with me... unless she wanted to go, of course. She said I could take Kendell, and he rather enthusiastically agreed to go.

I changed into civilian clothes, then went to the State Crime Lab building and procured the black SBI SUV, which was armored and equipped with a computer and communications equipment. I picked up Shane and Kendell, and at 12:00 high noon we headed out. We stopped at Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers for a hasty lunch, then got on the road.

I had asked Shane to drive so that I could examine the data acquired over the last few days on my laptop. I also looked up Donnan County, then said to the others: "Okay, Donnan County is almost totally flat; there is virtually no deviation from its mean elevation above sea level, and no hills or bluffs of any consequence."

Me: "Like that region of our State and the States to the east and southeast, it's agrarian, almost all farmland and crop production. The Butts River is created and fed by springs, and flows west and empties into the North River in the county to its west. The North River flows north, up to Westphalia/Eastphalia and The City."

Me: "BigAgraFoods owns fifty percent of the land in the county. There was a textile mill there in first half of the 20th century, but it closed in 1967. An iron works company that manufactured farm equipment was started up, and a paint and chemical manufacturing plant, the chemicals mostly being insecticides, was moved in from a county across the State Line, to take advantage of lower tax rates. This kept the railroad supporting the town, and they were working on getting auto manufacturers to set up a plant to mold and paint auto body parts."

Me: "And then it all fell apart in the early 1990s, when Ward Harvester bought out the metalworks company and summarily closed down its operations in Donnan County. The chemical company still makes insecticides and fertilizer chemicals, vinyl chloride, and the like, but the auto companies never bit on coming in, so the paint manufacturing was moved out of State."

"Typical small town in America, many of which are dying." said O'Brady.

"Yeah, it sounds a lot like Apple Grove, where I grew up." I said as I looked up more stuff on a Police-only website. "Okay, Sheriff Donnan himself has decades of law enforcement experience, and is credited with solving the Woolfork murders fifteen years ago. He has two Deputy Sheriff working with him, one primarily at the Courthouse. The Griffith Police is rated 'unexceptional'... not necessarily bad, but not high quality."

Shane O'Brady said "Most of the rural counties in the southeast part of the State are similar. The Pottsville PD gets a ton of résumés from the area, but virtually no one from there grades out very well."

"No doubt." I said. "Okay, I'm going to look at video data of the Toyota Gang that we have..."

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

5:30pm, Friday, October 8th. We drove into the town of Griffith and to the central complex that housed the Courthouse and Sheriff's Department. Kendell Ramsey said "I'm astounded by the lack of traffic, here. And it's closing time, too."

"Maybe a high school football game is taking place." I replied as we got out of the vehicle. We went inside the Sheriff's Department offices, and were taken to Sheriff Donnan. He was a middle-aged man beginning to be elderly, fairly tall and slender. He reminded me of Chief Bennett of the TCPD and then Teresa's hometown.

"Good to meet you all." said Donnan as I introduced Shane and Kendell. He introduced us to Deputy Goff. Goff was younger than Donnan, in his late 40s to early 50s. He looked like he'd been a football player, and still had a good physique. He looked like he could be outsmarted all too easily, as well.

"I'm really glad you could come down and help us out." said Sheriff Donnan. "This one's odd. I've never seen anything like it in all my years as a Police Officer and in the Sheriff's Department. Maybe you can shed some light on it, Commander Troy. We've heard about you all the way down here in the other corner of the State."

"Glad I could come down." I said. "I've never been to this part of the State before. And thanks for calling in the SBI to help. We offer, but most jurisdictions shun the help."

"Well, I freely admit this one may be too big for us." said Donnan. "Why don't we go to where we found the bodies before it gets too dark."

As we got into the SUV, with me driving and Sheriff Donnan riding shotgun, he said "By the way, if you have windbreakers that denote you to be in the SBI or the Police, I recommend you wear them. People will start looking at you funny, otherwise."

Shane and Kendell were in the back seat. We followed Deputy Goff as he drove along the main highway that ran east, towards the State Line. We passed by the school complex, that included Donnan County High School. The football stadium next to it was dark, the parking lot empty.

"Away game tonight?" I asked.

"Yeah." said Sheriff Donnan. "We're playing Rocktown. As you know, that's where the State Crime Lab and SBI Headquarters for this Region is located."

"Lot of people going to watch the team play?" I asked. "Your town seemed quiet when we drove in."

"No, people in these parts don't tend to travel too much. Gasoline is expensive." said Donnan. "Okay, pull up here to the left."