Dream within a Dream Ch. 02

"There is no way this could be accidental." I continued, which hushed any buzz in my audience. "There is no way that these chemicals could be accidentally introduced during the manufacture of the drugs, nor be the result of any natural reaction of the drugs. Therefore, I have informed the Director of the State Bureau of Investigation that this should be considered a murder-with-malice case, and I've requested they open a further investigation as such."

"Furthermore," I said, "due to the special nature of the foreign drugs introduced into the system, I've notified the FBI that their assistance will be required, and they will be sending Special Agents to work with the SBI in investigating further. That is all I have for now. Thank you."

"Commander!" screamed out Bettina Wurtzburg, "will you be personally working on this case going forward?"

"That'll be for the SBI and FBI to decide." I said.

"Commander, what were the foreign drugs that caused the prisoner to suffer so greatly?" asked John Hardwood.

"I am not at liberty to discuss details of that nature." I said. "Those details will have to be given to you by the FBI. Thank you for coming, and I'll be taking no more questions at this time." With that, I made my way off the makeshift podium, but it took a cordon of Uniformed TCPD Officers to get me through the crush of shouting reporters to a police cruiser and out of there.

I would see it later on TV: Pastor Raymond Westboro was using the moment to call for the end of the death penalty by lethal injection, and really for the end of the death penalty in the State altogether. The reporters were in a Media feeding frenzy as they got the opportunity to talk to an actual witness of the death of the unfortunate Lance Priemus, and Pastor Westboro really laid it on thick for them...

Part 8 - Doctor Appointments and Dreams

My wife often had the lovely black Nurse Jones assisting as Laura performed my examination and took blood and urine samples. But not today, and for good reason.

It was Thursday morning, August 27th, at 9:30am, and we were in the clinic attached to my wife's office. The media frenzy was still going on regarding the execution, and this was a good place for me to hide out. Director Lewis had publicly thanked me and my Crime Lab for finding out what happened, then announced that a special Task Force was taking over, led by Deputy Director Robert Gaston and Agent Carter Fischer.

And then FBI Special Agent In Charge Jack Muscone barreled in and said the FBI was taking over the lead of the case. The FBI had put out word that "insecticide-like chemicals" had been introduced to the bags of drugs. Technically that was true: some of the most potent insecticides in use today, which are not easily available to the Public, are very similar to military chemical agents.

But my wife was using this opportunity to talk about something else, hence the need for privacy: Company business. "The FBI interviewed Sharples yesterday." Laura said. "He had his lawyer present. He readily gave up his phone for examination. The text Priya received was from that cellphone's number, but the text wasn't there in his phone. And by that, I mean it never was there: as you know, erasing a text doesn't truly erase it, and the FBI's forensic people determined that it had never been on that phone."

"So he removed the SIM card and used it in another phone?" I queried.

"The forensics people think that did not happen. They didn't see evidence of the SIM card having left that phone." Laura said. "It is possible to mimic a SIM card if one has the correct, very sophisticated, and highly classified equipment... but tell me this, darling: does Sharples seem like the kind of guy who is smart enough to do something like that?"

"He is cunning, street-smart if not brain-smart." I said. "Obviously he would've had help to do something like that. Not to mention to obtain that information in the first place."

"Exactly." Laura said. "Dr. Casey B. Walker has torn what little hair he had right out of his head over this."

"He thinks I somehow did it, of course." I said, peering at my wife. She met my glance.

"Yes." she said simply. "He thinks you're involved. He still does not understand how you showed up at that warehouse to get Priya so quickly, and then he extrapolates out that if you could do that, you could accomplish this Sharples thing."

"And what are my means, my motives, and my opportunities for doing so?" I asked. "But he's half right: it wasn't hard at all to find the warehouse where Priya was taken... which I'm sure you've told him pissed me off greatly that she was subjected to that by him."

"Oh, he's aware." Laura said drily. "As is all of Langley and the FBI. So, how did you find her so fast?"

"By having a matchless knowledge of this Town and County, as any good Police Commander should." I said. "Captain Ross will tell you that I am constantly asking her and my Detectives where streets and buildings are, and I fully expect them to know as well as I do. It was pretty easy to determine."

"Good try." Laura said. "But it won't hold. You don't have x-ray vision."

"Don't I?"

Laura began to understand. "Well, if I were inclined to help Dr. Walker against you, which I'm absolutely not, I'd suggest to him that one Myron Milton somehow got onto us. His father deeply hates the Company, and there are a lot of people out there very scared of what Myron himself can do with computers."

"Myron is an excellent police officer." I said. "His father, however, is an eccentric, and he and Myron don't exactly have a normal father-son relationship. So, enough about that... what's going on with these dreams I've been having?"

Laura replied "Nothing physically wrong with you, you're in great shape... of course I know that from the way you fuck me every night." I grinned as she continued: "I'll have the semen, blood and urine samples back tomorrow. I'm also going to give Todd an exam later today, and I'll compare results."

"Are you going to take the semen sample the way you took mine?" I asked. "With a hot juicy blowjob?"

"Why, that sounds like an excellent idea!" Laura said, as if it were a sudden thought. "I just might do that." I grinned again as Laura said "And you'll be getting interviewed by Bonnie Karpathian at the same time. Better take a 'gray viagra'; I saw how she was dressed in anticipation of seeing you. She wants your 'other' iron crowbar, and I suspect she's going get it..."

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

I was lying on my back, naked. Bright but hazy lights were almost blinding me. I felt the wetness of the warm, wet pussy enveloping my cock as the woman bounced up and down on top of me. Looking up, I could see the mane of black hair, the firm breasts bouncing on her slender body, the nipples rock-hard and standing out like spikes.

"Ohhhh yeahhhhh," she moaned, "sooooo good, Commanderrrrr..." she moaned. I was fucking up into her black fringed pussy as hard as I could, our groins colliding as she let her weight fall down.

"She's not what she seeeeeems, Commanderrrr..." I heard Angela's voice say as she rode me hard. "Remember..."

Suddenly the lights were back to normal. It was bright, as sunlight was streaming through the windows. I was on my back on the couch, and it was Bonnie Karpathian on me, my cock buried nuts-deep inside her sopping wet cunt. She was riding me hard, moaning and gasping and tremendously enjoying fucking me. I reached up and squeezed the large, soft mounds of her big breasts. She leaned over and I sucked first one teat then the other into my mouth.

"Oh God, Don, that's so good!" Bonnie gasped. I felt the pleasure building up in my hard cock. Grasping Bonnie's ample ass, I suddenly lifted her up and twisted around. We fell to the sofa, Bonnie on her back and me on top of her, still buried in her black-fur-fringed snatch.

I slammed my mouth to hers as I began to fuck her furiously. Bonnie spread her legs wider, pulling them back to give me easier, better access as I drove into her, piledriving my meat into that sweet, wet cunt.

As I nuzzled her neck and suckled her earlobe, I again thought of Angela Harlan, seeming to hear her voice even as I fucked Bonnie's cunt into a creamy lather. "Oh yeah, keep fucking away, Commanderrrrr... let it go, work that nut out! Work it ouuuuuuttt..."

"UHH!" I gasped as I felt my nut rise. "I'm going to fucking come!... UHHH!!" The gray mist that fogged my eyes rose again as I felt my semen jetting out into Bonnie's eagerly receptive cunt, clutching firmly at my thick, iron-hard shaft as she climaxed yet again, one of many orgasms she'd experienced during our mating...

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

"Well," said Bonnie as we got dressed, "we could put off the interview for a few days. Of course, I'll do everything I can to fuck you again then, too."

I chuckled. "I'd have no problem with that. But let's go ahead and get it overwith. I have a feeling I'm going to be very busy over the next few days."

And with that, we began the interview. Bonnie was snuggled up next to me on the sofa as we talked. I was a bit surprised at the direction her questions went.

"If you can," Bonnie said after a few introductory background questions, "try to separate Angela Harlan's crimes, and tell me about her as a police officer. Was she a good detective? Run of the mill?"

I thought for a second. "She was pretty good while she was here with us." I said. "Competent, but didn't really show outward brilliance. But that might've been her holding back on us, or her focusing upon her mission to destroy Selena Steele."

"I will say this." I said. "I've run across her name as having investigated some things in Texas, and it appears she was very good down there. People who knew her but don't know of her crimes would say she was sharp and persistent."

"I got that impression, too, when I went down there." said Bonnie. "Why do you think she left Texas? Just following Selena Steele?"

"I..." I began, then paused. A line of thought in my head had just torn open. I had to fight to not go into a reverie over it. "I... guess she was just following Selena. I have not considered any other reasons." I said. But was that all it was? my mind screamed at me.

"In my interviews with some of your Detectives and Officers," said Bonnie, "they seem to think that Angela came up here because her cousin Brian was here, then she attacked Dawdle because he was investigating the University's athletics programs for PEDs. Would you agree with that?"

"No." I said. "Well, let me put it this way: that's too simplistic. First, some of my officers don't know all that much about the Selena Steele angle, which I think is why Angela showed up here. Now she did exterminate Dawdle because of the threat to her cousin, but that doesn't explain any of her other killings, either here or anywhere else."

"So," said Bonnie, "let's just get to the big one: why do you think the Black Widow targeted Peter Feeley?"

I sucked in my breath and exhaled, my eyes looking not at Bonnie but out in front of me. "I don't know for sure." I said. "My team and I had some conversations about it in the aftermath, but it was never quite clear why Pete was targeted. I've always sort of let it go as a target of opportunity, since I don't like to think about it at all."

"Because you lost a police officer?" Bonnie asked.

"Not only losing an officer..." I said, "... but I've never let go of thinking that we lost him because I failed to take action in time to save him. His loss was my failure."

"Does that drive you?" Bonnie asked. "Does that make you work harder?"

"Absolutely." I said. "I don't want anyone else to die... because I was weak."

"The Black Widow is dead," said Bonnie, "as are the members of her gang. You've taken revenge, and you've solved numerous other cases. Does that help mitigate the pain you're obviously feeling?"

I turned and looked Bonnie dead in the eye. "Not one bit, Doctor." I said levelly. "Not one bit."

"This is beyond the scope of my research," said Bonnie, "so I'll understand if you don't want to answer: what will it take to get over that pain?"

It only took a second for me to say "I'm glad you understand why I'm not going to answer that."

"Okay," said Bonnie. As we concluded and I prepared to leave, she said "Don, is there any way you can coax Lieutenant Perlman into answering my written questions? I submitted them weeks ago."

"I'll talk to her." I said, not revealing that I already had talked to Tanya. "But it's totally her call on what, if anything, she wants to answer."

I left Bonnie's office. I decided not to go to see Laura, as she might be interviewing Todd... and fucking his brains out, which I normally would love to watch but wasn't in the mood right now. I left the building, walking towards my SUV.

"Whaddya say we go get a beer?" I heard a voice say. There stood Cindy, waiting for me.

"Yeah, I could use one." I said.

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

She's not what she seems...

Those words haunted me as Cindy and I took our tall frosty mugs of ice-cold beer to the outside patio and our table in the very back under the umbrella awning. It was not quite shift change time, so there was almost no one at the Cop Bar yet.

"So, how did it go?" Cindy asked.

"Not too bad, I guess." I said. "The funny thing was, I started realizing some things that I'd never thought of before."

"Anything you care to share?" Cindy asked. "Or will I need to pry those thoughts out of you with a crowbar?"

"Well, let me say this." I said. "We know Harlan followed Selena Steele up here, tried to frame Selena for capital murder. But I've also come across some things as I was investigating Sharples and also some of these Shadow Man and Superior Bloodlines connections. And I keep coming across Angela Harlan's name. She was considered one hell of a badass Detective down there, and I think she was actually beginning to get on the trail of some of the things we're just discovering now."

"And she left you some names connected with all that." Cindy said. "But don't tell me she wasn't bad... sometimes I wish you'd kept me as well as Tanya out of Feeley's crime scene. I will never forget that."

"Neither will I." I said. "For me, I let it burn deep. It drives me to finish all this. No, Angela was a horrific serial killer, but let me tell you what I'm thinking by asking this question: why was Angela following Selena Steele from State to State? And I still never got an answer for why she selected Feeley as a target."

Cindy replied "I think we all came to a consensus that he was a target of opportunity, that she just wanted to kill a police officer, maybe to distract us?"

"Well," I said, "as I talked to Bonnie today, some things came to me. Maybe there was a reason Feeley was chosen, that it wasn't random or just because he was a police officer. Maybe he knew something he should not have known, but didn't realize it... sort of like Tammi Edmonds."

"I'll buy that for a dollar." said Cindy. "Maybe a Canadian dollar, though. And Selena Steele?"

I replied "We've been in and out of banksters all this time while pulling on threads related to our Consultant of Crime. But we've neglected to look really hard into Selena Steele herself."

"Ahhhh." Cindy said, nodding her head. "That is a point. Maybe Harlan started following Selena, then it somehow turned personal and Angela went bad?"

"I don't know." I said, quaffing down the remainder of my beer. "But I'm going to need you to hold down the fort and run the Detectives for a while. I might be doing a lot of research over the next day or two..."

Part 9 - A Severe Loss

At 6:30am, Friday August 28th, I received the bad news that I sensed had been coming for some time. I had been called into the Chief's office, so that I could hear this at the same time he did.

"So you're going back to the LAPD?" the Chief asked.

"Yes sir." said Lt. Claire Michaels, leader of my SWAT teams. "I appreciate the experience here, and I've learned a lot from Commander Troy, sir. But as they say: home is where the heart is. L.A. is my home."

"Nothing like the big city." I said. "But what else? There is definitely a 'something else'."

"Not much gets by you, sir." Claire said. "I have to say that the whole thing with Sharples, and what he did to expose Lorena Rose on that undercover mission, really bothered me. The guy should be in jail... or worse. Where I come from... he'd have been fragged by now."

"I understand." I said. "And his time is coming.

"And then there's Deputy Chief Brownlee." said Lt. Michaels. "I'm tired of getting orders for ammo and equipment canceled for no reason, having the schedule for the outdoor range fucked up to the point I can't get my guys the training they need. If you want a public reason why I'm going, that's the one you can use. Brownlee is a fucking turd, and I don't want any part of him."

"Neither do I." I said, looking at the Chief. "Of course, I daresay moving makes your impending breakup a bit easier."

Claire's eyes brightened as she realized I understood. "Uh, yes sir, that was not working out, either. Hugh's a good guy, but I shouldn't have gotten involved with him. And I wasn't sure exactly how our working relationship was going to work out after our personal relationship ended, either."

Chief Bennett asked "So... who do you recommend as your replacement in the SWAT units? Sergeant Charles?"

"He'll do." Claire said. She also suggested the young man that was the brother of Todd's friend, 'The Leader'.

"I've had my eye on Sergeant Charles for a while." I said, more to the Chief than to Claire Michaels. "So this resignation is effective September 15th. Make it September 30th, take your vacation for those last two weeks; you've earned that. Talk to Charles, get him ready to take over for you, at least on an interim basis. And I appreciate all you've done for me while you've been here. The SWAT teams are all that much better because of your leadership."

"Thank you, sir." said Claire. "I... I do want to say that my time with the Detectives working for you was the best learning experience I've ever had. I don't know how you do it, but I'm just aspiring to get halfway there."

"And you will." I said as we all stood up. "Well, good luck to you, Lieutenant, and don't be a stranger; give us a call or drop in sometime."

"Thank you, sir." Claire said. She shook hands with me and with the Chief, and exited the office.

"Too bad she's leaving." said the Chief. "One more problem for you to solve, Don."

"Yes sir." I said. "But it also gives me a chance to solve some problems. But you heard her, sir... Brownlee is becoming a cancer within this Police Force. I hope we don't lose any more good people because of that piece of shit."

"Yes, I know." said the Chief. "The Sheriff and I have been talking about it. We're going to start having Captain Della Harlow liaison directly with the Sheriff's Chief of Staff, Deputy Sheriff Oswald, bypassing Brownlee."

"He'll go ballistic." I said. "He can't harm Captain Harlow, but he could really fuck up her subordinates, and I can't babysit that situation."

"You don't have to." Bennett said. "Leave it to me and the Sheriff. Okay, I need to make some phone calls. I'll talk to you later about SWAT." Understanding that I was being dismissed, I left the Chief's office.

So Claire was gone, and she was thinking by pasting it on Brownlee she was helping us. But that wasn't the real reason she was leaving: this was not an Agency of the Weak-Minded, I thought to myself. I knew that with Callie Carrington exposed, someone had anticipated that Los Angeles would need reinforcements in the war against Superior Bloodlines...