Smoke on the Water Ch. 02

"Chief Moynahan, curb your dog!" Beth Paige yelled. "You, Troy, will speak to me only when spoken to... or my complaint to the I.G. will include an insubordination charge against you."

"STOP! You can't go in there!" we heard the assistant yell as the door opened and in walked Town & County Sheriff Antonio Griswold, holding his Sheriff Department iPhone. It is possible that there was an open connection between that phone and mine.

The assistant was about to physically grab the Sheriff when I yelled "You touch him and that's assault on a law enforcement officer! Ten years and a felony record! Just touch him! Give me the excuse!" I was brandishing my red crowbar, and I was about to use it. The assistant looked totally shocked.

"It's okay, Carla." Beth Paige said, having stood up. "You can go. Close the door behind you." Carla did so. Paige kept digging the hole she was in: "That's dirty pool, Troy, having an open phone line like that."

"And what are you going to do about it, Paige?" growled Sheriff Griswold. "Especially with me about to fire you on the spot."

"I've done nothing wrong, Sheriff." said Beth Paige.

"Like the Commander said, we can start with 'obstructing a Police investigation'," said the Sheriff, "which your dispatcher has already done, and you appear to be doing as well, by throwing your weight around as PHO, and threatening the Police Commander for doing his job. And if you want to play the rank-pulling game, Paige, I'm the very best there is in this here Public Safety Department."

"Then he better start showing me some respect, Sheriff." Beth Paige fearlessly said.

"And you'd better start showing the Sheriff some respect, Mizzz Page." said the Chief. "Crowbar beatdowns hurt, and it won't be Don giving you one if you con-tinnn-uuuue in this fashion."

"Then maybe I need to call my Union Rep now... and not say anything further until I file my complaint with the I.G." Beth Paige 'threatened'.

"You can submit that to me." said the Sheriff. "Just put the words 'I resign' on it and sign it. I can tell you now that Horace Wellman will laugh your so-called complaint clean out of the County. Now if you want to keep your job, start answering the Police Commander's questions."

I said "The obstruction charge against your dispatcher stems from his refusal to answer questions about sending a full level two HAZMAT unit instead of the level one unit we requested------"

"That's neither illegal nor wrong!" Beth Paige yelled angrily.

"So why won't he answer any questions about it?" I fired back. "My God, the level of stonewalling about a few simple clarifying questions borders on the insane! What the fuck are you trying to hide?"

"Nothing." snarled Beth Paige. "But there's no violation of the law in sending the full four-man team to the crime scene!"

"Once again," growled the Sheriff, "if that's the case, why the stonewalling? Why the lack of cooperation?"

"With all due respect, Sheriff: why this investigation at all? Why is the Police harassing my employee?" Beth Paige yelled, her face beet red with anger now.

"They didn't harass him!" I yelled back, worn to anger. "We've got it on the Officer-cams, and it's evidence now. They hadn't even asked him any questions when he started stonewalling them!"

And then it hit me, so I asked: "Ms. Paige, did you personally order that the level two team be sent? Did the order to send that team originate with you?"

"Do you or Moynahan personally dispatch units?" Paige tried.

"That's not an answer to my question." I replied.

"No, it's not." said the Sheriff. "Okay, I've had enough of this. Crowbar, go personally interview that dispatcher. If he gives you grief, you can have him call his Union Rep or a lawyer at Police Headquarters, while he's under arrest------"

"Really? Really?" Beth Paige exclaimed. "When he's broken no law, no law at all?"

"That remains to be seen." I said. "You see, Ms. Paige, after the overkill of sending the level two truck, the Press came in right with it, and then reported that we endangered the Public, which was not true. But the real problem is that your own HAZMAT team was greatly endangered by four perps that tried to kill them to get to the dead body inside."

I then said menacingly: "Now you may not give a God damn about your people, Paige, but I sure as hell want to know the story, the whole story, of what happened there... and right now, I'm wondering if your dispatcher... and higher-ups including you... had something to do with that. So no, I don't know that your employee hasn't broken the law... but I'm damn sure going to find out."

"Get moving, Crowbar." said the Sheriff. "In the meantime, the Police Chief will be my formal witness to what is about to happen in here..."

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

Meanwhile...

11:00am, Tuesday, November 10th. The Duty Desk Officer escorted three SBI Agents to the 1st Precinct Conference Room, where three TCPD Officers awaited them.

"Gentlemen," said Sr. Detective Teddy Parker, "I think y'all know me, Teddy Parker. This is our new Captain of Detectives, Claire Michaels, and Detective Joan Laurer with our Vice Squad."

"I'm SBI Agent Terence Johnson with the Immigration and Drug Enforcement (IDE) Branch."said Terence Johnson. "This is Agent Carter Fischer, currently assigned to the Office of Financial Investigations (OFI) Branch. And this is Pottsville Police Detective Shane O'Brady, who is currently here as an SBI Reservist."

As handshakes were made all around, Joan Laurer stepped up to Shane O'Brady with a sparkle in her eyes, nearly as tall as him. "We spoke on the phone." she said. "It's very nice to meet you in person."

"Likewise." said Shane O'Brady, impressed not only with Joan's attractive looks and 'statuesque' fit physique, but the fact she was almost as tall as he was.

As they sat down at the table, Claire Michaels said "I'm just herding cats today, and may be called away at any time. Detective Laurer is taking the lead on this one. Joan, why don't you fill the others in on what's going on."

"Yes ma'am." said Joan. She described the arrests at the school. Then there was a general discussion of the evidence collected and the charges against the arrested perps. Joan then said "We waited for you to begin the interrogations. The attorneys are from Lowe, Ball & Lynch, which handles business clients, so they may want criminal attorneys when they start to see what we have on them."

Teddy Parker said "Commander Troy, who sends his regards to all of you, can't be here due to a big drug and murder case we're working on. But if certain 'big boy' attorneys come in, we might see him show up."

Terence Johnson said "I hope to get to touch base with him, or someone, about that case and its State implications. But that can wait until we get past this today."

Teddy Parker: "That should be fine. Anyway, Mr. Coleman and Mr. Garner are usually straight with us when it comes to interrogations. But Garner was once Senator Nathan Allen's attorney, so the sleaze factor is there."

Joan: "I'm going to be interviewing them, and would like it if one of you State Agents could join me." She looked right at Shane O'Brady as she said it.

"I need to be in there." said Carter Fischer, inadvertently being a cockblocker. "This is big all over the northern half of the State, and the Governor-elect called me personally to (air quotes) 'encourage' me to land these fish."

"If you have ear buds," said Shane O'Brady, "we can direct questions to you as we watch from your Monitor Room."

"It's an anteroom, and we'll watch through the window." said Teddy Parker. "But yes, we'll have the earbuds system in use."

"So who are our suspects?" asked Shane O'Brady as everyone sat down.

Joan Laurer said "The four employees, who were at every school presentation so far, are College Republicans at City University or our University here. Three of the four interned with Wilson Hammonds, Cain Mitchell, or Jeff Canton. Bernie Parker, no relation to Teddy Parker that we know of, worked in the IT Department of State Parcel Service, SPS, which as you know was Edward Blassingame's company. He left SPS and began his own software startup company when Blassingame left SPS to take over BigAgraFoods."

Joan: "And Mrs. Alana Dalmore, the State P.T.A. official, also worked as part of Edward Blassingame's so-called 'inner circle' of assistants and staff, but left SPS a few years ago to work for the State P.T.A. full time. That's the story, anyway, but she had a lot, and I mean a LOT of contacts with Edward Blassingame and also his son Peter, who is now on Death Row at Jax State Prison." (Author's note: 'Unresolved'.)

Joan: "Bernie Parker is divorced; his wife left him after complaining that he was spending too many hours at work and fewer and fewer hours with her. This is not an uncommon complaint among employees and/or the spouses of Swamp Frog companies, as Mittens Willis was murdered by a man whose wife left him because he was forced to spend too many hours at work." (Author's note: 'Swamp Frogs', Ch. 02.)

Joan: "Mrs. Dalmore's husband works with a wholesale liquor distributor in this area and also parts of the South whose States have allocated liquors. I found what may be a 'strangeness' about the Dalmores: they've been married four years, but still have totally separate finances, the same ones they had before they were married."

Joan: "I don't know how much time you've had to look over the data the TCPD has amassed, and I apologize for not sending that earlier than this morning when we made the arrests. We were trying to keep everything quiet so that Parker and his group would show up and we could nab them."

"I read some of it." said Shane O'Brady. "It's really good work on your part. But it's also circumstantial, strong enough for a warrant for sure, but still circumstantial."

"That's very true, Mr. O'Brady------"

"Please, call me Shane." said Shane O'Brady.

"Thank you, Shane." said Joan with a smile. "And call me Joan. Yes, the data is circumstantial, but a strong start."

Terence Johnson said "My only question is: with whom do we start?"

"Mrs. Dalmore." said Joan...

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

Things suddenly got very quiet as I entered the Dispatch Room, followed by Lt. Commander Teresa Croyle, Detectives Roark Coleman and George Newman, and two Uniformed TCPD Officers. We went to the enclosed cubicle that was the Public Health Office's manager's place.

"Walter Walton?" I asked the geeky looking punk with thin curly brown hair, octagonal spectacles, and wearing a white button-down shirt and navy trousers held up by suspenders. Considering he was about 5'5" tall at best, the suspenders looked silly on him. He had his feet propped up on the chair next to the desk.

"Who wants to know?" said Walton, not looking up from his monitor. I used my left hand to put my ID in front of his face.

"Donald Troy, Town & County Police Commander" I said. "Again, are you Walton?"

Walton did not bother to stand up, as he should have, nor even remove his feet from the table upon which they were propped. He just half-turned in his chair and said with a sneer "I want a Union Rep."

"And you'll get one... at Police Headquarters." I said. "Get up. Let's go."

"I'm not going anywhere with you." Walter whined. "Unless you have a warrant for my arrest."

"Why, I just happen to have that right here." I said, taking the document out of my trenchcoat pocket, and handing it to him. I also took something else out of my trenchcoat pocket. Something red, and made of iron.

Walton began tearing up the warrant. "You have no probable cause to arrest me."

"You just resisted arrest." I said. "And failed to follow a Police Officer's lawful instruction." I grabbed his arm, pulled him violently out of his chair, and flung him into the common area at the two Uniformed Officers.

"You fucking Pig!" Walton yelled, scrambling up and attacking me. As he pushed me, he yelled "You got no right to----- UHHK!"

*WHAM!*

I twisted his arm behind him and drove him face-down into the floor. "THAT HURTS!" he cried as I pulled his arm behind him, hard, and affixed cuffs, then did the same for the other arm.

"Walter Walton, you're under arrest, for-------"

"HEY!" yelled Teresa, pointing to one of the other Dispatchers, who was trying to film us with her cellphone. "That's against the law!"

"No it's not!' the girl said. "I'm recording your Police Brutality! I claim whistleblower status------ UHHK!"

Teresa had hurtled into the attack, and had turned the girl and slammed her face onto the desk, almost breaking her nose. Teresa followed my example of violently pulling the girl's arm behind her, then cuffing her arms behind her back. She jerked the girl up and recited to her the Miranda rights as I did the same for Walton. One of the Uniformed Officers took up the girl's offending cellphone. No one else had moved as we left the room.

I'll let you deduce whether it was Teresa or me that was using the anti-bugging device...

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

TCPD Detective Joan Laurer and SBI-OFI Agent Carter Fischer stepped into Interrogation-1 at County Jail. Seated at the table were Mrs. Dalmore and her lawyer, Mr. Garner.

Mrs. Alana Dalmore was tall, though not as tall as Joan, slender, and white skinned with raven black hair. Her pretty face had high cheekbones, but not in an Asian way; if anything, she had some Latina blood in her.

Joan introduced herself and Fischer, then read Mrs. Dalmore her considerable rights from the card, and Mrs. Dalmore acknowledged she understood the rights with a mere nod.

"What is this about?" asked the legal beagle Garner. "Before you even ask any questions, I want to know what this is about. And I want to see the warrant under which you arrested my client."

"Here's the warrant to hold her as a suspect." Joan said, passing the document over to the lawyer. "And what this is about is a Statewide investigation of identity thefts and credit card thefts that we have found evidence that points back to the 'Ancestor Discovery' business."

Garner: "And your warrant to arrest my client before you actually arrested her? Where is it?"

Joan: "Exigent circumstances. She was taken into custody to prevent her from fleeing the jurisdiction. And the warrant I just handed you is sufficient to hold her while we complete our investigation."

Garner: "No, that's not enough. You had no exigent circumstances. My client is not part of the 'Ancestor Discovery' company. There was no reason to arrest her."

"Except that our ongoing investigation is showing that Mrs. Dalmore has been responsible for getting this group into the schools involved in the frauds." Joan replied cooly, then delivered her shot: "And experienced criminal attorneys know that we're on solid ground, and that there are no loopholes, there."

Garner looked darkly at Joan, then looked over at Carter Fischer. "What, are you just going to sit there like a useless bump on a log?"

"What, do you have women issues?" Fischer fired back. "You got a problem with a woman leading this interrogation?" That stung, too.

"Proceed to support your case for my client's arrest." said Garner.

"We will... at the right time." said Joan. "In Court. In the meantime, we're here so that we can ask your client the questions. Now Mrs. Dalmore------"

"I'm not answering any questions at this time." said Mrs. Dalmore.

"You're taking the Fifth?" Joan asked.

"No." said Mrs. Dalmore. "But I'm not answering your questions until I'm formally charged with a crime. I'm certainly not cooperating with your attempt to lynch me, here..."

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

After being taken through full booking and dressed in a stylish orange jumpsuit, Walter Walton was brought into I-1 at Headquarters and handcuffed to the ring on the table. Mere moments later his attorney arrived: H.J. Lynch, of the firm Chase, Lynch, and Berry, P.C. They were in the room alone, talking.

I had been prevented from going in to begin the interrogation by the arrival of a very angry PHO Beth Paige, followed by the Sheriff and Police Chief. "What the hell are you doing, arresting my employee?! I told you already that he's committed no crime!"

"He has now." I said, not giving her the courtesy of calling her 'ma'am'. "We have the statements and the Officer-cam videos in the evidence servers. He tore up the warrant for his arrest and refused to come with me. That's obstruction of justice as well as resisting arrest. Then he physically lunged at me and came into physical contact with me. That's assaulting a Police Officer, and a full second count of resisting arrest. All of those are felonies, and with consecutive sentences, he is looking at least 30 years of prison time without possibility of parole."

"After you goaded him!" Paige snarled. "And my people are saying you assaulted him, and he just defended himself."

"You are free to review the videos." I replied. "And I'm willing to let a Jury decide it. Now if you'll excuse me, I have an investigation to perform."

"What the hell can you possibly be investigating?" Beth Paige gutturally snarled. I turned and confronted her.

"You tell me." I said, my voice low and menacing. "My Officers just wanted to ask clarifying questions, and your snotty little employee stonewalled them, even asked for a Union Rep as if he'd committed a crime. And then he actually committed felonies when I showed up at his cubicle."

I continued: "And you, Ms. Paige, are acting almost as badly in your attempts to stop my investigation. I normally tell my Officers that when a suspect takes the Fifth, it should not be automatically considered to be a sign of guilt. But with your snot employee and with you, I consider your reactions to be strange at best... and suspicious at worst. Now what am I going to find, here?"

"You go to hell." Paige snarled then turned around. The Sheriff immediately ordered her into the Chief's Conference Room. I headed for I-1...

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

Mr. Garner also acted as Bernie Parker's attorney as Joan Laurer and Carter Fischer came in to interview him. He said he understood the rights after they were read to him.

Mr. Garner did not attempt to question the warrant that had been obtained prior to the arrests being made at Eastside Elementary. But he did try the tactic of asking the Detectives to present what they had. Joan Laurer had learned; she ignored him and proceeded to question Parker.

"Mr. Parker," said Joan, "who arranged for 'Ancestor Discovery' to make your presentations in the State's elementary schools?"

"Don't answer that." said Garner. "And you direct your questions to me, little lady."

Joan stood up. "Who are you calling a 'little lady'?" she growled angrily. "Not only are you a sexist, which I intend to use to get you disbarred, I think you'll find out that I can twist you into a pretzel just by sneezing on you."

Carter Fischer said "So what's your answer, Mr. Parker? Who set it up for you to be able to make those presentations?"

"I told you to direct your questions to ME!" Garner yelled.

"And I ignored you." said Fischer. "I'm asking Mr. Parker the questions, here."

Garner leaned over to Parker and said loudly enough for everyone to hear: "Don't say another word. At all. I'll do all the talking."

"So you're invoking, Mr. Parker?" asked Joan Laurer, who was still standing.

"No, he's not." said Garner. "But he's not going to say one word to you until he's charged with a crimes, and then we'll decide if he's invoke or not..."

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

"WHY is my client chained to this table?" screamed H.J. Lynch as Teresa and I entered Interrogation-1. Officer Buchanan was the Uniformed presence.