Dream within a Dream Ch. 01

The chronological order of my stories is now listed in WifeWatchman's biography.

Feedback and constructive criticism is very much appreciated, and I encourage feedback for ideas.

This story contains graphic scenes, language and actions that might be extremely offensive to some people. These scenes, words and actions are used only for the literary purposes of this story. The author does not condone murder, racial language, violence, rape or violence against women, and any depictions of any of these in this story should not be construed as acceptance of the above.

*****

Part 1 - Prologue

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" shouted the lovely redhead reporterette at 7:00am Monday, August 24th. "Channel Two News has learned that Lieutenant Janet Dixon-Riordan of the Nextdoor County Police has resigned her position with the Force after allegations of corruption in the drug trade of that county. She protests her innocence, and has filed a lawsuit against the SBI and Agent Sergeant Sharples for defamation of character."

Bettina continued: "But no matter the outcome of that, her effectiveness with the Nextdoor County Police's anti-drug units, considered one of the State's very best, has been destroyed. The Nextdoor County Police Chief made a statement saying the SBI was deliberately sabotaging his Department's drug units in order to have the SBI's Narcotics Task Force encroach upon the County's sovereignty. The NCPD Chief also stated that he will never cooperate with the SBI in the future, and that he'll avail himself of Commander Troy and the TCPD's expertise if his Police Force needs assistance. Nextdoor County already has a contract with the Town & County's Crime and Arson Labs to circumvent the need to use the State's Crime Labs."

Bettina continued: "It is incidents like these, and deep tensions between the SBI and local law enforcement agencies, that could become a huge issue in the race for Governor. SBI Director Jack Lewis is widely believed to be running, and will announce his candidacy as a Democrat over the Labor Day weekend.

"The Republican Party has not said who might run against Lewis, but denied that they have approached Town & County Police Commander Donald Troy as a potential candidate. Asked for comment, Commander Troy issued a statement that he definitively is not running for Governor nor any other political office, and that he is not a member of any political party."

As we listened in MCD, I said "That's not all I said. I told Bettina that I would never run as a Republican after what they did to John Cummings in the last election, and that I consider the Republicans to be cowards and Democrat appeasers. Funny how she left that out."

"Yeah." said Detective Joanne Cummings, John's cousin. "They'll never bring that up if they can help it. They're part of the problem."

"Agreed." I said. "The Democrats, Republicans, and Media are a cartel, a triumvirate of pure corruption." Have I mentioned that I have no respect for the political parties, and an even deeper hatred for the deeply corrupt Media?

At that moment, we received a surprise visitor, as Cindy ushered her older sister Molly into MCD. "Look who I found wandering in the hallways." Cindy said.

"Hi Molly!" I said happily, hugging the lovely, pregnant blonde warmly. "How's the baby?"

"Wonderful." Molly said. "How's his dad?"

"I'm surviving." I said. "Thanks to all these guys. What are you doing up here?"

"I have an appointment with someone later this morning," Molly said, "so I thought I'd stop by and see you guys." I could see Cindy out of the corner of my eye; she was as confused and surprised at Molly's presence as I was.

"Okay," I said, "Well, here's a cup. Have some coffee."

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

It was my personal cellphone. My nephew Todd was texting.

"Hey guys!" I said. "My nephew Todd says he's the proud father of a new baby boy!" Amidst applause, I said "I'm going to go on up to University Hospital. Captain Ross, you can come see your new first cousin twice removed." That meant grandchild of Cindy's first cousin, my sister Elizabeth. Todd's child was also Cindy's third cousin. If you're confused by all that, you are not alone.

"I'll come along later, and bring Teresa." Cindy said quietly.

Part 2 - Births and Deaths

"Hi Uncle Don!" Todd said happily, presenting me with a real cigar with a blue bow on it as I stepped off the elevator onto the maternity ward floor of University Hospital. "Aunt Laura is examining Jeanine. They had to do an episiotomy; he came a couple of weeks late and is 7 pounds, 13 ounces!"

"Good grief!" I said. "What's his name?" I asked.

"Michael Todd Burke." Todd said. "The first name is not my idea, but I'm okay with it."

"Speaking of Michael, where is he?" I asked.

"In the waiting room." Todd said. "Since nothing gets by you anyway, I'll tell you that he was not allowed into the delivery room with us, partly because he's not the father, but partly because Aunt Laura specifically forbade it. And he's not wanting to see you, either."

"No surprise there." I said. "How are things between you and him?"

"Oh, not bad." Todd said. "He's almost apologetic about Jeanine leaving me for him. I'm not particularly happy about it, but if if's what she wanted, then I won't make an issue of it."

We went into the waiting room, where Michael Burke was. "Commander." he said shortly by way of greeting. "I'll leave you two alone for a few minutes." He left without shaking hands or any further acknowledgement of me.

As we watched the TV, I heard Priya's commentary on KSTD: "Tomorrow night at 11:00pm, Lance Priemus is scheduled to be executed by the State for the murder of a black police officer and his wife eight years ago. Local residents will remember the case and the controversial trial that followed."

Priya continued: "Priemus has claimed that he has been denied proper counsel as well as a proper course of appeals. The case was racially charged at the time and during the trial, but the Reverend Joseph E. Williams of the A.M.E. Church has taken up Priemus's cause publicly, saying he should not be executed before the facts of the case are re-examined. He and SBI Chaplain Steven Ikea are with Priemus now, and Pastor Raymond Westboro of the First Baptist Church, of which Priemus had been a member, is also in Jacksonville."

"I don't know why," I said to Todd, "but I feel like I just heard something very important."

"What, the execution of a criminal?" Todd asked.

"Yeah." I said. "Something about that is setting off my 'spidey sense'.

"Uh oh." came a voice from the hallway. "That usually means someone is about to get something made of iron shoved up their butt."

It was Cindy Ross who'd said that as she entered the waiting room, with Teresa in tow. They both hugged Todd as they congratulated him and received cigars. Cindy hugged me in congratulations, also, and I returned it. Todd was then fetched by a nurse and left us in the waiting room.

It was about 10 minutes later that Laura came and got me. "You and Cindy can have a couple of minutes. Jeanine is exhausted; it was a hard delivery for her." We followed her in the room. Cindy and I congratulated Jeanine, who was lying sleepily on the bed.

The lovely black woman, Nurse Jones, had been taking the baby's temperature, and at Todd's direction handed him to me. I held my great nephew, who was scrunched up but a very big newborn baby. He had all his fingers and toes and looked healthy. I contemplated the miracle of Life as I handed him to Cindy. After a few more minutes, Cindy and I made our goodbyes.

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

Ninety minutes later, I was called on my cellphone by Nurse Jones. I came back up to the Hospital, where Nurse Jones caught me at the front door.

"There is a woman in the lobby waiting room." Nurse Jones said. "She says she's Todd's family, but when I suggested she go up to the maternity level waiting room, she said she'd wait before doing that."

I looked in the lobby waiting room, seeing the backside of a woman covering her face with a shawl. It was her lovely legs that gave her away to me.

"It's good." I said. "I'll handle it."

"Who is she?" Nurse Jones asked.

"Like she said, she's family." I said. I walked into the waiting room and in front of the woman. My sister Elizabeth was looking up at me. "Come on." I said, throwing my shoulder forward in a gesture for her to follow me. Silently she did so. We went to the elevators but I went past them to an elevator that normally was not available to the Public. If I'm a Police Commander, I might as well use the power and privilege of it, I thought to myself.

I looked out before getting off the elevator on the maternity ward floor. There was no one in the immediate vicinity. I had Elizabeth go into a small breakroom nearby, then went to Jeanine's room. She and Todd were with the baby.

"Dad is out getting us something to eat." Todd said. "What's up?"

"Bring the baby for a second." I said. Todd did not ask questions, but collected his new son and we went into the hallway. Luckily no nurses took note of us as we brought the baby into the breakroom.

"Mom!" gasped Todd when he saw his mother. "Why didn't you just come on up?"

"I think it's best I not be seen." Elizabeth said. She turned her attention to her new grandson as Todd handed him to her. There was something close to a tear in her eye as she looked down on him.

"Another boy." Elizabeth said. "Always boys. Carole's the only girl." Her words triggered something in my mind, and I was having a reverie as Elizabeth spent a few moments with little Michael Todd.

The door to the breakroom opened and Nurse Jones looked in. "Okay, Commander," she said, "we need to get that baby back in his mother's room, pronto." Todd took the baby back, kissed his mother, and quickly headed back. I escorted Elizabeth back to the lobby and outside.

"Thank you, baby brother." Elizabeth said, trying not to show emotion. "I'll be going now. You have too much going on in this God-forsaken County to be worrying about me."

"Well, then... congratulations, Grandma." I said to her in a teasing voice. She cut her eyes at me, then nodded and walked off towards the visitors' parking lot. She ducked between some cars, and I saw why: Michael Burke was driving into the lot.

He strode up to the entrance, carrying two sacks of Egg McMuffins, his face registering surprise when he saw me. "Still here, Commander?" he asked, his voice unfriendly.

"Yep. For professional reasons." I said. "My profession. Congratulations to you. Goodbye." With that I strode to my Police SUV as Burke entered the Hospital.

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

Meanwhile...

Detective Sergeant Molly Ross Evans of the Midtown Police Force entered the Nextdoor County Police Headquarters. She checked in at the Duty Desk, showing her badge and saying she had an appointment with Lt. Dixon. A moment later, the beautiful redhead came and got her.

"Come on to my office." Janet said. Once inside, she had Molly sit down. Offers of coffee were politely declined.

"I'll get right down to it." Janet said. "You might have heard of what happened to me."

"Yes." Molly said. "It was disgusting, malicious. If you need help beating their false accusations, I can contact Commander Troy."

"Oh, I've already talked to Don." Janet said. "He's going to bring the crowbar down on the bastards so hard they'll wish they'd never heard of my name. But in the meantime, I've resigned from the Nextdoor County Force here. With my divorce going through the works, and the publicity over all the crap that's gone down, I need to just get away anyway. And that is why I've called you."

Molly looked surprised as Janet said "You have been recommended as my replacement. If you accept, you'll be the Lieutenant of the Vice Division here, which is 99% drug interdiction. We're not as big as Midtown, we're nowhere near as financially well-equipped as Commander Troy's Police Force, but it's a good job, these are good cops you'll be working with, and the people here in Nextdoor County are good people. Well, there's the rich ones around Lake Reservoir that think they rule the world, but you can handle them."

"Oh, wow." Molly said. "I'm... uh... I'm flattered. I'm also a bit stunned; I wasn't expecting this."

"I know." said Janet. "I also know you're pregnant with Commander Troy's child. And your sister is the Captain of Detectives over there. You'll be a closer to them, a lot closer, without the pesky nepotism laws to worry about."

Molly's heart was surging as she realized the personal benefits of the opportunity. "It sounds great. But I'll have to think about it. I've got a great team and situation in Midtown."

"Tell you what." Janet said. "Let's go talk to the Chief, who is a good friend of old Chief Griswold, then you can meet the people here. And then you can make your decision. I know it won't be easy to uproot from Midtown, but don't close the door on us yet."

"Oh, I'm not doing that." Molly said. "I think it could be a really great thing." With that, Janet led Molly to the Chief's office...

Part 3 - The Dream

"So... what do you think?" Tanya asked. We were in her office, as she had asked me to come and look at the written questions submitted by Dr. Bonnie Karpathian pertaining to the Black Widow. Some were simply about Angela Harlan. Others delved into Tanya's relationship with Pete Feeley, then her handling of things after his death. The last several questions were about the raid that proved fatal to Angela.

"Should I have a lawyer look at them first?" Tanya asked.

"I wouldn't blame you if you did. Or at least get Paulina to glance at them." I said, referring to the lovely Assistant District Attorney.

"I'm not answering those towards the end." said Tanya. "I'm wondering if I should answer any of them."

"Well," I said, "just between us and the lamp-post, and I'll deny it if anyone else ever asks, but my advice would be to only answer the ones about Angela herself. Don't answer anything about your own state of mind at any time. Maybe I'm paranoid, but..." I let the sentence hang.

"I hear you." Tanya said.

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

Back in my office, I was working on my computer, finishing some paperwork and looking at the previous day's duty logs. I drank some coffee and leaned back...

... and suddenly I was back in what looked like the hallways of University Hospital, but the rooms were totally empty, and dark... dark like that painful night that Cindy had been shot and I was waiting to hear if she survived it.

Down the darkened hallway stood a woman... and I saw that it was Angela Harlan. She was again nude except for the high-heel black pumps as she strode down the hallway towards me, the heels clicking on the black tiles of the floor, the mane of black hair flowing behind her. I felt like I was unable to move.

"Things weren't as they seemed to be, were they, Don?" she said to me, her voice seeming to echo in the hallways, and in my head. "I wasn't what you thought... and I'm not what you think of me now. And she's not what you will think, either..."

"Who is 'she'?" I asked. Angela just grinned, then turned and walked back down the hallway. I was suddenly right back in my office, everything normal, but seemingly quiet. The matchstick Trojan Horse was seemingly looking at me. I looked back at it for a second, then cleared my head and got hold of my senses.

"Good grief, what is in that coffee?" I thought to myself. And then I let myself remember the past few days...

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

After the first dream of the Black Widow at my house, I had remembered the envelope of information she had left after her death. The next morning, I went and got Cindy and we descended into the secure basement. We went into the Evidence Rooms and I led Cindy into a back area, filled with boxes. I selected a box and brought it off its perch.

Most closed-case evidence went to the storage facility that was connected to the Courthouse, but this box had remained behind on my orders, because of its special nature. I opened the box, and saw that the contents were still there.

"This box contains the information Angela Harlan left behind after she died." I said. I rummaged through the papers and found what I was looking for. "This is a list of bankers." I said. "I didn't realize it at the time, of course, thinking it was just potential Black Widow targets. But look at it now."

Cindy took the paper. "Mr. Harkins, Second National Bank. Ricky Morris, J.P. Goldman Bank. Hamilton Phillips, Grove & Partners, P.C. Richard Hudson, Reems & Berry Insurance... oh my God, Don!"

"Yes." I said. "At the time I thought these just might have been Black Widow targets. What we didn't know then but can see now is that Angela gave us the names of people we now believe may be associated with Superior Bloodlines and/or our Consultant of Crime."

"Some other names are here." said Cindy. "Charles Franklin, City & Counties Bank; Lawrence Kendrick, People's Bank of New York; Henry Boxman, Rainbow Insurance of San Francisco; Perry Richards - DFW Regional Banks, which are in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area."

"Needless to say," I said as I photographed the sheet of paper with my personal iPhone, "I'll be looking into these people."

"What's this?" Cindy said as she rummaged through the box, finding another slip of paper. "It says 'found out about the four'. Any idea on that?"

"Yes, and I'll tell you about that when we get upstairs." I said.

"How did you come to remember this?" Cindy said.

"Just popped into my head." I said, not giving my partner the real reason. She peered at me, then turned to put the box back up with what I faintly thought was a look of understanding beyond the spoken word...

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

"The Four," I said to Cindy in my office, with my anti-bugging device full on, "is a small group of people that originally consisted of Thaddeus Ward of Ward Harvester, Karen Warner Harlan, Coach Brian Harlan, and Angela Harlan herself. When Angela was waxed, my sister Elizabeth took her place in the group. And when Coach Harlan died, he was replaced also... but I'm not sure who replaced him."

"Two men, two women." said Cindy. "Is that a pattern or a coincidence?"

"Pattern, I think." I said. "I'm not sure who 'Number 4' is. I was thinking he might be Sharples, then I had an idea it was Thomas P. Cook. And then I get a vague idea it might be our Shadow Man himself... but he'd be extending himself if it was him, so I dunno."

"What's their purpose?" Cindy asked.

"Industrial espionage." I replied. "Industrial secrets. They were competition with the Corrigan Cell, among other things. They'd planned to take Dynacorp and use it as a base along with Ward Harvester, but Seth and BOW Enterprises got in the way of that. So now they're using Elizabeth's smuggling pipelines to move technological secrets from point to point."

"So why haven't we busted them yet?" Cindy asked.

"Based upon what evidence?" I countered. "Hell, I only know they exist because of Angela's note, which I am guessing is the reason she waxed Burleson. For all we have on them, they could be just a foodie and wine-tasting group instead of a criminal syndicate."

"Seems Angela Harlan is much more useful to us in death than she was in life." Cindy said, a hint of bitterness in her voice.

"Don't let Tanya Perlman ever hear this," I replied, "but if Angela had not gone bad... she might have been one of the best Detectives we ever had, or anyone else ever had... present company included. She was onto this stuff before we ever were."

"Yes," Cindy said, "but she did go bad. And I'm going to make sure you don't go bad. This Shadow Man makes people do crazy things."