Who Watches The Watchers Ch. 01

Tim said "Well, I guess the best way to say it... first of all, I'll say that Callie loves baby Ben, and she does her fair share with him... but I just don't think she was as ready to be a parent as Cindy was, and is. Again, don't get me wrong..."

"I think I understand." I said. "Having a child is absolutely the biggest life change a person can have. I remember when Carole was born; from that day on, my whole life became about raising her and supporting her, and that just continued when my other children were born. I know you'll be going back to Southport, and it'll be more for you like a divorced father that doesn't have custody, but your son will still be the foremost thing in all your future thoughts, plans, and actions."

Me: "It'll be the same for Cindy, just as it was when she took custody of Betsy and adopted her. I would have thought Callie would be feeling the same way; after all, parenting Ben is no different than parenting Betsy..."

Tim said "Like I said, I'm not trying to say anything bad about Callie, nor am I trying to say there's a problem. You're right that I will have to go back to Southport, probably by Easter Sunday this Spring, so maybe things will settle in for them then."

I said "So what can you tell me about Kevin Pitts and his mission?"

"Uh... I'm not sure I can say." Tim said, his voice uncertain. Seeing my eyes glance over his way again, he said "Okay, okay. All I'm going to say is that what Karina said was true. We were told not to tell the TCPD, Nextdoor County PD, Midtown PD, nor anyone who might get back to you or any of them about it."

"Ahh, so it's not me specifically, but those several Police Departments." I said.

"And I have no idea why." Tim Jenkins said. "Especially since he's not working in any of your jurisdictions, that I know of."

"Okay." I said. "I'll say no more until we check out the scene."

And we didn't. Tim took the opportunity to ask me as many questions about fatherhood and raising a son as he could think of, keeping me busy happily answering those questions...

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

Chief Harold Bennett had found one of the nurses whose names were in the autopsy report. Her name was Nancy, and she was now in her upper 60s, and worked at the Shady Acres Hospice facility. She agreed to talk when she learned that Clarissa was Sarah's sister and Phyllis was Teresa's grandmother-in-law.

"Oh yes, I remember that night." Nancy said. "It was... so sad. Well, Teresa survived, so that was good. But Sarah did not. And ultimately, neither did her husband."

"He was the Sheriff, wasn't he?" Phyllis asked.

"Not at that time." Nurse Nancy said. "He became Sheriff a short time later. In fact, what happened to Sarah may have been the reason he ran for Sheriff. But you wanted to know about Sarah..."

Phyllis said "No, please... tell us about him, first. It may be very important."

"Oh, it is." said Nurse Nancy. "We didn't have cell phones back in those days. When Sarah went into labor, she called the Sheriff Department, where her husband worked as a Deputy. Someone else answered and said they'd radio him to come get her and take her to the hospital, or send a car themselves. But they never did."

"They didn't tell him?" Clarissa gasped.

"No ma'am." said Nurse Nancy. "I don't know how much you know of the past of this town, of Harmon Belton and his grip on it. He was beginning to consolidate that power then. He claimed to love your sister, and he hated your brother-in-law from the time he came home from Viet Nam."

Nurse Nancy: "The Sheriff then was in Belton's pocket, and was being paid very well to put Belton's interests before the interests of the town. So when Sarah called and said she was going into labor, no one told her husband, and no one came to get her."

Nancy: "The sun was setting when she finally called a friend, one of the few women in this town brave enough to talk to her, and that woman came and got her. The woman, whose name was Mildred, was a school teacher, and a pretty crafty woman herself. She drove by back roads, and it was a good thing. That Sheriff had other Deputies lined up to stop Mildred and Sarah from reaching the hospital, while sending her husband to a phantom call several miles away."

Phyllis said "And Sarah delivered Teresa in the backseat of that car, didn't she?"

Nancy said "Yes. When they got to the hospital, the baby had been born. Sarah was holding Teresa against her, belly to belly, and the placenta was still in place, though tied off. We rushed them into the Emergency Room. Teresa was okay, and we got her cleaned up."

Nancy: "But when we went to clean up the ejecta from Sarah... we found that she was bleeding, and badly. The doctor told us to prep Sarah for emergency surgery... but she went into cardiac arrest before we could, and our every effort to revive her was not successful. I'm so sorry."

Tears were streaming down Clarissa's face. She nodded and said "Thank you."

"What happened after that?" asked Phyllis.

"Her husband finally got there." Nancy said. "When we told him what had happened, he almost went berserk. I have rarely seen such grief in a human being as he showed that night."

Nancy: "A few days later he came and got Teresa. I know that Mildred and his sister, a woman whose married name was 'Croyle'... I think her first name was Beatrice... helped take care of Teresa and her sister Alexis. I remember Mildred telling me that every time Teresa's father looked at her, he'd begin weeping. And he fed her and changed her, but never held her for any length of time. He never got over his wife dying in childbirth with her."

Phyllis: "And he found out that he'd not been given the message she had gone into labor?"

"Yes." said Nancy. "There is a rumor that he confronted the Sheriff over it, and the Sheriff laughed in his face and told him that if he didn't like it, he could go fuck himself, excuse my language. So he ran for Sheriff himself. Word had gotten out what that corrupt Sheriff had done, and the other Deputies that had been sent to keep Sarah from getting to the hospital felt really bad when they heard she died, and they told everyone the story."

Nancy: "The corrupt Sheriff saw fit to move away. The people here voted your brother-in-law in as Sheriff, in what was their last hope to keep Belton from ruling them, from crushing them, from destroying them. For a while, there was a stalemate. And then Alexis died, and last year, when Teresa came back, we found out Alexis had been murdered. And that was the final straw, that broke her father's spirit. He went mad the night she died."

"Yes, we know what happened from there." Phyllis said.

Clarissa Esterson got out her checkbook as she said "Thank you for telling me this about my sister."

Nancy protested: "Oh, you don't have to do that. In fact, I'm glad to be able to finally tell the story. Less than a year ago, I would have died for speaking it... like Mildred died."

Clarissa wrote the check and handed it to Nancy. "Please, I insist. And I know you will find better things to do with it than I would." Nancy accepted the check, which was in the upper five figures.

"I'll find a good charity for it." Nancy said. "Or do something on behalf of Teresa. You should be very proud of her, Mrs. Esterson. Teresa not only came back, she brought Commander Donald Troy with her. He's the Iron Crowbar... and he is everything the legends said that he is. Harmon Belton and his son Kenny died, and it's whispered that Teresa avenged her sister, her father and her mother, and liberated this town in taking that revenge." (Author's note: 'Centuries'.)

As the women got up to go, Nancy glanced up at Phyllis and then did a double-take. "You... you look just like him!"

"Like who?" Clarissa asked.

"Like him! Like the Iron Crowbar!" Nancy said, then said to Phyllis, "You look just like him in the face. Are... are you related to him?"

Phyllis's eyes twinkled as she said "Yes. Don Troy is my son. And you are right... he is everything the legends say he is, and I could not be more proud of him..."

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

As Phyllis drove the car back towards Police Headquarters, Clarissa absent-mindedly looked out of the shotgun-side window.

"What do you think of this place, Phyllis?" Clarissa said.

Phyllis said "This town was under a dark cloud for a long, long time. And they've only come out from under that cloud in less than a year's time. Not much sunlight to make life grow yet."

Clarissa nodded, then said "There are places in the Bayou that we know not to go into, especially after dark. One can feel the Evil that just reeks from those places. This town was like that, and I'm not sure they're freed from the shackles of that darkness. It is... unfortunate... that my sister and her husband chose to come here."

Phyllis said "Yes, their story was tragic. But it made Teresa what she is."

"Yes. Yes it did." Clarissa said. A moment later she said, her voice full of emotion, "Well, I learned what I wanted to learn, and a lot more. Sarah did get to hold Teresa before she died. I don't know why, but that means a lot to me."

"I know why." Phyllis said. "Just as you held your children when they were born, and I held mine, there is nothing like it in this world."

"Should we tell Teresa?" Clarissa said.

"Will it help her if we do?" Phyllis said. "She already knows her father could not overcome the pain of losing Sarah whenever he saw Teresa."

"True." Clarissa said. "But it's her right to know... isn't it?"

Phyllis said "You were in a world of secrets far deeper and longer than I was, as was your husband. It's your decision to make on how much of this, if any, to tell Teresa, and I'll abide by whatever choice you make..."

Part 4 - "Proceed To The Route"

10:50am, Monday, February 22d.

Our vehicles were directed through a fence into the City Railyards, and we drove southwards along the edge of the fence up to where other vehicles were. As we got out, I saw City Detective E.J. Jefferson, once of the Town & County Police (Author's note:

'Dark Side of the Force', Ch. 01.), and his partner Detective Tony Long, along with four uniformed City PD Officers.

I also saw DEA Supervisory Special Agent Dwight Stevens, along with some FBI crime scene technicians. SBI Agents Terence Johnson and Carter Fischer were talking to him and E.J. Jefferson, which surprised me; the SBI normally was most very unwelcome in the City.

And then I saw FBI Special Agent Julius Jefferson, E.J.'s first cousin and a member of Jack Muscone's team. But the big surprise came when I saw FBI Executive Assistant Director (EAD) Owen Lange, who'd been looking inside the empty car. For him to be here bespoke the extremely serious nature of this situation, as well as something else really big going on that brought him to The City in the first place.

E.J. Jefferson had stepped forward. "Ahh, Commander!" he said in a somewhat falsetto voice, followed by greeting me in a more normal voice: "It's good to see you again, sir. You too, Commander Croyle."

"You too, E.J." I said shaking his hand. "When are you coming back to the TCPD?"

"I'd love to, but I love it here, too, sir." E.J. said.

"Sheriff Griswold would love your asskissing and your political skills." I said. "What's going on here?"

E.J. got serious as he said "A Federal Agent, a Kevin Pitts of the DEA, put out an 'Agent in Distress' call very early this morning. We responded within minutes and found the car here. His cellphone was taken back down Carroll Street, from where he had to have come, and was thrown into the Railyards."

I said "They may have realized it was broadcasting the distress message, so they threw it out."

"And far enough away that we might not go down Carroll Street for a while, but the other way along the Railyards's tracks." said EAD Owen Lange as he came up to us through the gate in the fence the FBI had forced open to access the car. "Dwight, show our FBI Consultant the car."

"Yes sir." said Dwight Stevens. He did not greet me as he led the way through the fence. "As you can see, Commander, the driver's side window was smashed, with a lot of the glass going into the car. We opened the other doors as we checked out the car. There was nothing else in the vehicle nor the trunk."

"Except the GPS." I said as I opened an app on my Police iPhone, plugged a UBS-C cable into it and the GPS, and began downloading the GPS contents.

"What are you doing?" Stevens said, almost accusingly.

"Downloading the GPS." I said "And I'll send it to your guys if you haven't already downloaded it yourselves. It's important, because Carroll Street here can only be accessed by... Delray Street, which itself is a narrow alley. Carroll Street goes south, with the building to the west and the fence along the Railyards to the east. Carroll Street dead-ends here. There's hardly enough room to turn around, except very slowly and inches at a time, or by backing out all they way back to Delray Street."

Jack Muscone had come up, and he said "That's what we're noticing, too. It would be folly to drive in here without a good reason, as it's a perfect ambush site. If he chased a car into here, that car had no way out and should still be here. And if he was being chased, he'd do a hell of a lot better on the bigger roads, and working his way to the Federal Building."

I got out of the car and began looking under the wheel wells and the bumpers. "Were there any tracking devices, friendly or foe, found on the vehicle? Maybe in the trunk?" I asked, loudly enough for everyone to hear.

"No sir." said one of the FBI techs. "We checked visually and by using equipment that detects transmitting devices."

"Good, that's good work." I said as I began looking around in front of the car, between it and the fence. "I don't see anything here, like blood, or like something that would be set up to draw him in." I looked around, up at the building that went along Carroll Street. There were no doors to that building nearby.

"I guess y'all have checked the building, here?" I asked.

"Of course we have-------" started Dwight Stevens, about to get snarky with me.

"Yes sir, we did." interrupted E.J. Jefferson. "We got a warrant based on the distress call and finding the vehicle here, and we cleared the building. It's almost completely empty. There's some evidence that some homeless people may have lived here, but they didn't stick around long enough for us to see them. We've found no blood or any indicators that he was dragged in or out, and infrared showed no heat signatures."

"Good job. Very thorough." I said, wondering if I should be impressed with the CPD, or if they had done all that only because it was an Agent we were looking for. I then said "You recovered his phone? Can I see it?"

Detective Tony Long brought it over in its evidence bag. "Hi Commander, good to see you again, sir." he said affably as I put on a fresh set of latex gloves.

"Good to see you again, too, Tony." I said. I examined the phone. "Glass is cracked in the corner, probably from where it hit the ground after it was thrown. So where did you guys find this?"

"Wayyyy down that way, sir." Tony sir, pointing northwards up the railroad tracks. "You can see that orange cone and those two Agents down there. We're speculating they got to the intersection of Carroll and Delray, threw the phone out over the fence as hard and as far as they could, then got on out of here."

I nodded. "I'll buy that for a dollar. Anyone opened the phone?"

"Yes sir." said another of the FBI techs. "It's a burner, but a standard-issue burner for our Agents going undercover. The Agent-In-Distress software is on it, along with some security tools. We downloaded the texts and emails, but there weren't many."

"Would you mind opening it, and letting me see it?" I asked. The tech looked at me a bit warily.

"It's okay, open it up for him." said EAD Lange, who had been shadowing me all this time. I could sense he was very tense, very nervous... and very worried.

I plugged my Police iPhone into the burner, and opened its Maps app and began downloading. "What are you doing, sir?" the Federal tech asked. "I haven't seen that before."

"Really?" I said. "This is pretty standard Police software to download where someone had been going if they were using the Maps and the Siri applications to navigate." After the download was complete, I said "I can send this to you guys if you don't have it."

"I've got it, sir." said Julius Jefferson. "But that's not standard Police software, sir. I won't ask where you got it, on account of knowing who your wife is."

"Smart man." I said with a grin. "Somebody promote that guy."

I began trying to examine the data, but I noticed that everyone was gathering around me, and I began to feel surrounded... and not in a good way. Teresa must've felt the same way: she had come over and was standing right next to me, and in a protective fashion.

"Anything, Don?" asked EAD Lange.

"I think we may need to go to the Federal Building, sir." I said.

"Why is that?" asked Lange.

I said "Two reasons, sir. First, I'm going to need my laptop to really analyze this data and see if it bears out a very scary idea I've had. And second..." I paused a moment, glancing around.

"And second?" Lange prodded.

I let my eyes drift to look right into his as I lowered my voice to a whisper and said "If I'm right, you will only want a few people hearing this..."

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

Teresa and I were alone in the Conference Room of the FBI offices in the Federal Building in the center of the City. As I examined the GPS and Maps data on my laptop, I noticed that Teresa was typing again on her Police iPhone, and by that I mean typing a lot.

"Everything okay?" I asked while still looking at my laptop.

"Sir?" Teresa said, looking up at me.

I turned to look at her iPhone. "You've been typing a lot on that thing all morning. Ergo, is there anything I need to be made aware of?"

Teresa said "Yes sir. I'm following up on getting the affidavits from our Officers that had eyes on the kids at the whiskey convention. We've got just about all of them. And Cindy is following up with her contacts at DFACS, and we're texting back and forth on that."

"Cool beans." I said. "I appreciate you following up so vigorously."

"How is your research going?" Teresa asked me. "Not to push you, but those Federal Agents are on the verge of heart attacks over this."

"I know, and every second counts in a case like this, if Pitts is still alive." I said. "But there's something that may be even scarier, and I think this data confirms it. Let's get them in here..."

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

FBI EAD Lange, SAC Muscone, ASAC White, and DEA SSA Stevens all but stumbled over themselves as thy rushed into the Conference Room. Coming in behind them was Special Agent in Charge Ashton Cardigan, who was in charge of cyber-operations.

"You got something?" Lange asked.

"Yes sir." I said. "Please, sit down. Uhh, where's Tim Jenkins?"

"I asked him to get in touch with Crenshaw in Southport about the situation." said Lange as everyone sat down. He then quickly asked "So, what do you have?"

I had hooked my laptop to the monitor mounted on the wall at the end of the table, and I brought it up as I said "My analysis of this data confirms my worst fears."

"What's worse than Agent Pitts being abducted, and possibly dead already?" Dwight Stevens asked.

"The way he was abducted." I replied. "Pitts doesn't live here; ergo, he would use the Maps feature to have Siri give him directions to any place he's not familiar with, including the City Center where the Federal Building is. It is also a decent idea to use Siri to learn about accidents and backups on the highways."