Town & County Confidential Ch. 01

"With respect, sir," said Mary Milton, "it's his involvement with the CIA, if that is true."

"Let me make a phone call." I said, taking a cellphone out of my drawer. I dialed a number and said "Hi honey, is this line secure?"

"Yes." said my wife, Dr. Laura Fredricson. This phone and her phone that I'd called had some serious, no-shit security on it. I was told that even the NSA couldn't crack the encryption, and I believed that as much as I believe the NSA doesn't spy on U.S. Citizens. But I digress.

"I need you to check in your special way if someone has any connection to any Federal agencies." I said, then gave her 'Caleb's real name.

"Let me check." Laura said, and I knew she'd be bringing it up on her ultra-secure laptop she used for classified CIA things. As she typed, she asked "So what do you want for your birthday?" My birthday was October 26th, and Laura's was November 1st.

"I'd tell you," I replied, "but this line might not be secure enough. And I have rowdy Police Officers here that might overhear me."

Laura laughed, then said "No, according this this, he was in the Army, but was not part of the CIA... they considered him to be too unstable, and weren't sure of his loyalties. And there's no connection to the DEA nor any other Federal Agency. And... he's not on the 'Disavowed' list, either."

After saying our goodbyes and 'I love you's, I disconnected the call. "He's not CIA, never was, never 'disavowed'. So yes, 'Caleb' would be an ideal C.I. Congratulations, Halston, on a great find." I signed the approval document.

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

"Exactly what are we looking for?" asked Detective Sergeant Julia Rodriguez as she sat at her desk in MCD, looking at her monitor.

Captain Muscone had sent all of the MCD, Vice, and Intel Detectives the links to the videos of the convenience store robberies, and instructed them to view the videos for clues prior to a meeting later that morning.

"Anything that sticks out." said Senior Detective Teddy Parker, Julia's Police partner. "Anything Commander Troy would call a 'strangeness'." Parker was white, with brown hair, medium build and fit. He often wore a trenchcoat, like I did, and that made him look like the quintessential plainclothes Police Officer or Private Eye.

"I'm looking at the pattern of the robberies." said George Newman, who was black and looked like a heavier-set Billy Dee Williams (who played 'Lando Calrissian' in the Star Wars trilogy). "Five robberies. Four on the Southside: two near Hotel Row to the south, two on the southwest side, on or near Riverside Drive. The fifth was just northwest of Town, and was on the same night as the one furthest south. The two on Riverside were the only ones where we got street camera footage, and one of those locations is the only one with any shooting incidents."

"What time were the robberies?" asked Newman's partner, Roark Coleman, who was white and at times showed brilliant observational insight but also a strange understanding, or lack of it, of human nature.

"Oh, this is interesting." said Julia Rodriguez. "They're all between 11:00pm and 11:30... more specifically, between 11:10pm and 11:25pm. That narrow a timeframe for all five can't be a coincidence."

"You're right." said Lieutenant Jerome Davis, who was sitting at one of the desks instead of in his office, so that he could discuss the cases with his Detectives.

"The robberies themselves look pretty typical." said Detective Theo Washington. He was tall, black, slender, and 'movie star handsome'. He did not make the brilliant observations, but could plod through a lot of muck to get to the correct conclusion and successful arrests. He was Joanne Warner's Police partner, and their contrasts made them a good team.

"Two perps in every case." Theo said. "One hits the cash register, holding the clerk at gunpoint. The second guy is watching the door and any other people in the place. I see him yelling at someone to stay down in one of the videos."

After a pause, Teddy Parker said: "It looks like at least four different people, based on height, weight, and outerwear attire. Criminals in gangs tend to wear something standard, such as a bandana or trademark shades, and both good people and bad people tend to wear the same jackets. I'm seeing the same guy, tall, well-built, holding up the cashiers with the gun in his hand during the Riverside robberies, but his partner in crime is different on the two occasions."

Parker: "On the Southside robberies, another taller, well-built man, but wearing a different jacket, different hat and goggles to cover his eyes, is holding up the cashier, and the second man... or maybe even a heavy-set woman?... is guarding the door. And the robbery on the Northside is two more slender dudes.. young, maybe teenagers?"

"I'll buy that for a dollar." said Senior Detective Joanne Warner.

Just then, Vice Detective Joan Laurer came into MCD. She was tall, statuesque, with her black hair tied behind her head in a ponytail. She was not only attractive, she was very physically fit, though not to the 'competition' standards that Deputy Chief Cindy Ross had once been. Laurer was also the first TCPD Officer in eleven years not named 'Troy', 'Ross', or 'Croyle' to win the Police Boxing Matches (Freestyle Division), a tremendous accomplishment.

"Guys," said Laurer, "confirm this for me. At the two convenience stores on Riverside and the two stores on the Southside, it looks like the perps took the bigger bills but left the one, fives, and tens... and they also took a big manila envelope out of the bottom of the register drawers."

Everyone looked. "You're right, Joan." said Julia. "Is it common practice to keep money in envelopes under the removable cash drawer like that?"

"It's more often a leather bank bag in a drawer, usually kept in a back office.." said Teddy Parker.

"The one on the north side had..." said Joanne Warner as she looked intently at her monitor, "Darn. Nothing. The robbers didn't even take the change rack out of the register; they just took the bills. But one of the robbers is out of the camera range for several seconds. Maybe he took something from a drawer?"

"Could be." said Jerome. "Maybe some visits and interviews will tell us more. And I see what the implication of that is, Joan. It may be the crack observation of the case..."

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

Meetings. Whoever invented 'meetings' has a special place in Hell reserved for them. And I'm sure Hell itself is just a place of never ending meetings. But sometimes they're the only way I can get a case, so I load my flask and my gun, and not necessarily in that order.

11:00am, Wednesday, October 7th. I came into Classroom 'E', which was not really meant to hold meetings of this size. All of the Detectives of MCD and Vice were there, as well as Captain Muscone and Lt. Commander Croyle, and of course Lieutenant Mary Mahoney Milton of the Intel Branch.

Captain Tanya Muscone started us off as I sat down in my seat at the center of the long table, facing the 5x4 array of monitors on the wall. She said: "Okay, this room has been swept for bugs, and none of you should have cellphones nor Police radios in here. Are we good on that?" Everyone nodded, including me.

"Good." said Tanya. "Okay, the reason for this meeting is to discuss the series of convenience store robberies in several parts of Town but mostly in the southern and southwestern Hispanic areas. I sent all of you the video footage we've obtained, and asked you to look at it to see if you spotted any anomalies. So, what did you find?"

The Detectives went through the similarities of the times, and also the way the money had been taken, which was reviewed on the tapes. "That's a good observation." I said.

"That's our Police Boxing Matches Champion making that observation, sir." said Lt. Rudistan with great joviality, and showing great leadership in complimenting his Detective in front of the Police Commander.

"So you're telling me she can observe things as well as she fights, eh?" I replied with a grin. "Seriously, that's good work, Joan. And the narrow timeframe is also a good observation. That's very interesting. Criminals usually don't keep railroad timetables."

"Neither does Amtrak, sir." said Teddy Parker. We all laughed at that.

"Okay, okay. Touché." I said. "So if we catch these guys, maybe the Judge will sentence them to run Amtrak for us. Now let me ask this: tell me about the other people in the store in the minutes before the criminals robbed it."

You could have heard a pin drop.

"Uh," said Tanya Perlman, trying hard to save her Detectives, "let's go back and review the extended footage now."

It was a poor effort, and I let her know it: "And I have to have my time wasted, and sit here reviewing what I've already looked at, but apparently no one else has?" I said witheringly.

I got up to go. "Tell you what, Captain." I said. "You review it with them, and get your Detectives up to speed on this, as well as proper video review." As I opened the door to leave, I turned back and said "My disappointment in all of your performances cannot be overstated." With that, I turned and left.

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

It amazes me at times, that people can't see what's going on around them. From their surroundings to the American Mainstream Media lying to them, they just can't seem to see the forest for the trees. Makes me want to take a few more slugs... from the bourbon flask.

At 1:00pm, Captain Muscone drove into my office. "Sir," she said, "I have some new information for you. First, I didn't get a chance to tell you in our earlier meeting that Christopher Purvis did a workup of the finances of the stores that were robbed."

Detective Christopher Purvis was white, medium height and slender build, and his perfectly-styled hair was so black that other Detectives said behind his back that he used shoe polish on both ends of him. They also called him 'Chris Pervert' behind his back, though he had no perversions of which I was aware.

He had worked his way up from the Uniformed ranks to become a Vice Detective. In recent years, he'd been tasked with being the financial 'guru' of the unit, a job he did relatively well, and was now part of Intel Branch.

"Good." I said. "What did he find?"

Tanya said: "All the stores are doing a relatively normal business, and Chris found no large sums of money in or out, so he doesn't think any of them are being used for money laundering. What he did find was that the owners of these establishments, including Pablo Gomez of the most recent robbery, have good sums of money in their bank accounts, often from deposits of around $5000-$7500, and separate from their pay to themselves from their businesses."

"Keeping it under the ten grand that would trigger reports to the U.S. Government." I said as I perused the file Tanya had handed me. "And no real explanations of the money?"

"Chris hasn't found anything yet." said Tanya. "We can get warrants and interview the various bank people to see if the deposits were in cash."

"For that matter," I said, "we can also get warrants to just pick them up and ask them what that money is about. But they'll probably clam up, ask for lawyers and all that." Then I said "Okay, now tell me what your Detectives saw, once I pointed them in the right direction."

"I do apologize for them not being more prepared, sir." said Tanya. "Unfortunately, most of the camera footage we have is of the cash register counters and the front door. Only one of the locations, the northwest store, had footage along the aisles. And to be candid, sir, either we're just missing what you're seeing, or there's nothing to see."

Tanya then said "And to that point, sir, you really ripped my Detectives a new one, and they're not sure why. What can I tell them about that?"

I said "Besides what I said when I left the room, that I'm disappointed in their performance? Yes, it was harsh, but we have really got to get them to a higher standard, and very quickly. And I think you know why." Tanya nodded.

I went on: "As to what the 'teachable moment' is... okay, I perceive you're wearing your wristwatch on your left wrist. Don't look at it, just cover it with your right hand." I put my own right hand on my left wrist as an example. Tanya followed it, covering her wristwatch.

"Okay," I said, "this is something the late Zig Ziglar, the motivational speaker, taught. Now... tell me what the numerals on your wristwatch are. Roman numerals, regular numerics, none at all?"

"Uh," Tanya said, "I think they're normal numbers. The calendar date is where the '3' would be."

"Good." I said. "Okay, when I say go, I will count down three seconds and you look at your watch. Ready? Go... 3... 2... 1... stop."

Tanya had looked at her watch then covered it with her other hand again. "I was right, normal numbers."

"Good." I said. "What time is it?"

Tanya's eyes rolled for a second, then she grinned and laughed. "Point taken, sir."

I said "Yes, people see what they focus on, and don't see what they don't focus on. In fairness, peripheral vision is usually blurry, but the point is that the Detectives were looking for certain things in the footage, and didn't see------"

*BUZZ!* *BUZZ!* *BUZZ!*

It was my assistant Helena buzzing me on the landline. "Sir," she said "Federal Agents Muscone and Stevens are here to see you."

"Have them go to the Main Conference Room." I said. "We'll join them there."

Part 4 - Federal Foibles

I trust Federal Agents about as far as I can throw them. Which ain't far, since a lot of them are overweight and out of shape. And the rest of 'em are underweight between the ears.

Dame Agatha Christie once said that one could always have one coincidence, but could never have two. That Agatha Christie was a smart Dame...

FBI Special Agent in Charge Jack Muscone was like Rudistan... he was barrel-chested and appeared to be getting overweight, but was deceptively in shape and fit. He had black hair and the beadiest of beady black eyes. He'd also won my Angel Tanya's hand in marriage, so I was not surprised to see his eyes light up at seeing Tanya, and her eyes twinkling at seeing him.

With him was DEA Supervisory Special Agent Dwight Stevens. He had a bit of a 'Paul Newman' look, except his hair was chestnut brown. He was medium height, slender, and fit. He was a good Federal Agent, but he had one problem: he did not trust me, despite my repeated examples over time that he should.

I had Lt. Commander Croyle come in and join us for the meeting. After everyone got coffee, which Helena had scarfed from MCD, we sat down. At that moment, Police Chief Sean Moynahan joined us and took his seat at the near (to the door) end of the table.

Chief Moynahan had been a Police Officer in the Midtown Police Department. Midtown was the State Capitol, and the political corruption there had been rampant. Teresa Croyle could attest; she'd been with their Internal Affairs for six months. Moynahan had been a Captain there, with a group of honest Detectives that included Cindy Ross's sister Molly Evans. He'd been run out of Midtown by corrupt Police, narrowly avoiding being murdered, and we were fortunate to have had a vacancy in our Police Chief's chair for him to fill.

He also talked with a Southern drawl: "Good morning, every-wunnnnn." he said as he sat down. "To what do we owe the plezzzurrrre of a visit from our Federal friennnnnds?"

"Thank you for having us, Chief." said Jack Muscone. "We heard on the news about this series of convenience store robberies, and Dwight wants to discuss them."

"We-elll, don't keep us in suspense." drawled the Chief, stealing my line.

"First of all," said Dwight Stevens, "I want to congratulate you on successfully solving those Babymaker murders. Another stunning success by the Iron Crowbar."

"Team effort." I said. "Really, it was these ladies and all our Team that solved that." Teresa and Tanya shook their heads vigorously in disagreement, and pointed at me to say that it was my doing.

"If our Sheriff were herrrrre," drawled the Chief, "he'd say something about modesty being a human trait, and he would excuse Mr. Crowbarrr's attempt at it. But go ahead, Agent Stevens, with your cassssse."

Dwight Stevens began: "We've been monitoring the tri-County area, your County, Coltrane County, and Nextdoor County, for any signs of major drug trafficking organizations trying to come in after the Jacquez Wilson gang was blown up, literally. And we've gotten a few leads that The Eighth Street Latinos have been trying to organize a pipeline into the County. As you know, the rapper T-Square's lieutenant T-Mac has been supplying the southside clubs, and they control that with an iron fist; they have run Latino gangs clean out of Town, sometime with violence."

Stevens: "When we heard about this series of robberies of the convenience stores, we realized that the names of the stores, and/or their owners, were the same names we'd been hearing in connection with the Eighth Street Latinos drug pipeline. And we know what you and Agatha Christie think about coincidences like that."

"That is indeed interesting." I said. "I'm glad you told us, as we're just starting to gear up on these robberies. Captain Muscone, why don't you tell them what we have on these robberies so far." Tanya gave the report she'd given earlier in the Angels Meeting.

Dwight Stevens asked "So you think these are black gang members committing the robberies? Not Hispanics?"

Tanya plugged her iPad into the hookup on the table and showed them the videos, then said: "We are developing intel about them, and think some of them were associated with the late Jacquez Wilson. Wilson hated Hispanics as much as he hated whites and Police blue, and he did not have Hispanics in his gang."

Jack Muscone said "Dwight, this may confirm what we were speculating, that the convenience stores are where the 'middleman' drug transactions were taking place. Maybe the black gang found out about the drugs, then hit the stores when they had the cash on hand."

Stevens nodded. "Nice haul for them."

"What do you Angels think?" I asked my Angels.

"I have a problem with it." said Teresa Croyle, who had once been the Vice Squad's Lieutenant, and was well-versed in criminal drug operations. "We've had, what, five robberies? The drug runners are going to hear about this and realize the robbers know about their operations, and will then stop doing their deals this way. If they don't, then it's the old adage 'Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.'."

"That's true." said Tanya.

"So maybe something else is going on, here." I said. "This might sound far-fetched, but what if the robberies are the drug transactions?"

"I'd say you've never let 'far-fetched' get in the way of your thinking." said Jack Muscone, needling me. "What's your idea again?"

"That the robberies are actually cover for the drug transactions." I replied. "Our review of the tapes showed packages being taken out of the cash register. Those packages could be the money or the drugs. I'm still looking for how the drugs are delivered, though."

"But why?" Dwight Stevens asked. "Why go through all that? And one robbery had shooting involved. These could go sideways in any number of ways, not the least being the Police showing up and taking down the perps."

"I have no idea why, nor any data to theorize upon." I said. "One solution, of course, is that it's not drug related at all, that these are just robberies and really are coincidental to these drug issues. But I think we have enough to push harder on investigating these crimes as possibly connected, and possibly more than just robberies."