Frozen Mothballs Ch. 03

"Yes, we thought of Jack King and your Black Badge case." said Jack Muscone. "There do seem to be similarities in how these cells work. They well could be the same people at the very top."

"Oh, no doubt they are." said the DepDirector. "And hanging those bodies at King & Ebenezer Food Industries is a deliberate affront to the Iron Crowbar, not to mention the name of that location."

"What's that?" asked Dana Fox.

"King & Ebenezer." I said. "John Colby sold the plant to two black men, but it ultimately went out of business. The 'King' is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., of course. His father and he were pastors at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta in the Civil Rights times of the 1960s. Ergo, the name. But Mr. Director, I don't think that's the reason they put the bodies there this second time. As you said, it was waving a red cape in front of my face. And they will rue... the...s day."

The DepDirector and Dana Fox smiled. Jack Muscone looked like he always looked. But Les Craig was failing to hide a sneer of disdain on his face.

"Don," asked Muscone, "are the people behind the poison mothballs the same ones behind the murders of LaCroix and the other person?"

"Well," I said, "I need to say it this way: Maybe. And by that I mean that it could well be one group, Superior Bloodlines, at work. But I'm getting a nagging feeling that it may not be as it seems. If the person that was hung alongside LaCroix is the person I think it is, then we might have two groups at work. Maybe with connections to each other, but doing their own thing at times. And one of those groups may be a CIA cell, not unlike the Corrigan cell, but much more corrupt."

"My God, are you kidding?" asked Dana Fox, who was the FBI's chief Homeland Security liaison.

"I have reason to believe it." I said.

The DepDirector said "Everyone in this room knows what happened to you, Don, and Agent Muscone briefed them on the man you saw during your ordeal as well as at the State Capitol. I've also talked to your wife and to other CIA persons we can trust. The FBI has a special task force looking into the matter, as it's our job to overwatch the CIA on domestic issues. And of course, I'd like to claim our involvement when our FBI Consultant there helped us save you the last time, but I don't think it was us that motivated her."

"I love my Canadian buddies." I said, fist-bumping Cindy.

"God save the Queen." Cindy replied, drawing a sharp look from Les Craig.

"Okay, Jack, take these consultants and our other Agents out to lunch on my tab." said the DepDirector. "Les, Dana, you stay here with me..."

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

Muscone had reserved a back room at the City Tavern. The food was very good. As we sat and talked, I was talking to Sandra and Lindy.

"You know I'm pregnant, right?" Sandra had said as she saw me observing her.

"I'd heard rumors." I said lightly. "What I observe is a lack of jewelry on your left-hand ring finger, and I don't think you just removed it to wash your hands."

Sandra and Lindy exchanged glances, then Sandra said "You're right. Martin and I called off the engagement. We still date, but we both realized we need more time on the total commitment."

"The baby have anything to do with that?" I asked.

"Not really." said Sandra. "I think it crystallized what we were already thinking, brought it out for both of us to the talking stage." I nodded.

Meanwhile, Jack Muscone was talking to Cindy: "Don't take Les Craig too personally. He's paranoid about security issues, especially since the Corrigan cell was exposed. He had a bit of a naive attitude about the integrity of Federal Government."

"No." said Cindy. "I've been around the Iron Crowbar long enough to know that Agent Craig had an ulterior motive in calling my loyalty and integrity into question. It was a chess move, a seeming sacrifice to ultimately gain more in the end. He was calling attention to himself, trying to get himself noticed. So... is he after Clark Webster's job? Or Dana Fox's job?"

Muscone gave what was for him a smile. "More like mine, maybe." he said. "You're right, he's limitlessly ambitious."

"I also noticed," Cindy said, "that your boss had him stay while asking you to escort me and the Iron Crowbar out of the room. Smart man, your boss is."

"Four hundred years ago," Jack Muscone said, "they'd have tied you to the same stake as your cousin, in good old Salem, U.S.A." Cindy couldn't help but smile brightly at that compliment.

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

Martin Nash was sitting by the (untended) bar in the back room as everyone finished up lunch. I went up to him.

"How's it going, Martin?" I asked. "You may be solving the Jeanine Burke murder very soon, if I don't miss my guess."

"And you never do, sir." said Martin Nash, still instinctively calling me 'sir', though he no longer worked for me. "But not the Michael Burke case. And now Jack is getting obsessed with finding Dick Ferrell, so if we don't find Ferrell first..." He did not need to finish the sentence.

"I hear you. You better find Ferrell before I do, also." I said. "But never mind that... what about you, Martin?"

"Superior Bloodlines." said Nash. "My uncle is obsessed, and I've been working it hard, mostly because I want to close it out for him so he can retire. I'll be glad when it's done, though. And I can move on to new assignments. That was always a good thing about working with the TCPD... we closed the old case and began new ones."

"True." I said. "I'm sorry to hear that things didn't work out with Sandra... so far, at least."

"You know, sir," said Nash, "when you let us know that you knew I was really with the FBI, Sandra and I really talked about me staying with the TCPD, taking the MCD Lieutenant slot. And if we were going to get married and all, that's probably what I should have done. But we decided to stick with the FBI, and I think even then we knew that marriage isn't what we really wanted. We were pretending to be something we weren't."

"Glad you figured it out early on." I said.

"And since I know that the baby is not mine," said Nash, "it just made things more clear to both of us." If Nash was trying to startle me, I did not let him see it on my face.

"Not that it's any of my business," I said, "but how do you know it's not yours?"

Nash just looked at me. "With all your powers of observation and deduction, Commander, you never had the knowledge of this one, and neither did Sandra. She still doesn't, by the way. She doesn't know that I'm sterile. I shoot blanks. Injury when I was in high school."

I nodded. "I was told once that my sperm count was too low to have children. Obviously Carole and little Jim proved that to be wrong. But I remember how I felt when I was told that, and I can empathize with you."

"Thank you, sir." said Nash. "So, let's eat some gunpowder and go bust up Superior Bloodlines." I chuckled... and then fell into a reverie.

When I came out, I said goodbye to Nash and the other FBI Agents, then went and got Cindy "We've got to get back to Town. I just realized something about the Black Velvet case. I think my brain was like one of those frozen mothballs, but it's finally thawing out..."

Part 13 - Epilogue

"Don, this is Jack," said Muscone on the cellphone as Cindy and I were driving home. "Tanya just called. The full tests are still running, but the quick and dirty DNA marker tests confirmed what you thought. The other guy at the meat plant -is- the body of Jeff Fuqua."

"Cool beans." I said. After hanging up, I told Cindy. She nodded.

"As usual, you saved them considerable time." she said. "So... I appreciate you standing up for me when Les Craig questioned my loyalty. But why do you think he did that?"

"Could be a lot of reasons," I said, "but I think he's going to regret the unintended consequences... the crowbar spanking he's going to get. I never trusted him in all the time we were going after Westboro, and I don't really trust him now. I will add that he never did a very good job in Southport. The Mob pretty much was laughing at him behind his back, while feeding him lines to lead him astray."

Cindy nodded. "I'm starting to think my decision to not join the FBI was a good one, in spite of having to work for you and Chief Moynahan."

I grinned, knowing she was being facetious. "Got what you asked for, you did. Regret it, you will not." After a pause, I said "What would you think of Martin Nash coming back to the TCPD?"

"Are you serious?" gasped Cindy.

"I haven't talked with him about it nor asked him," I said, "but I suspect that if I did when all this Superior Bloodlines stuff wraps up, he might just take it. But it will be your decision to offer him the job, Captain of Detectives."

"I'll take him in a heartbeat." Cindy said. "So, you're sounding about the same as you did last year when talking about Moriarty... even naming the timeframe of it coming to an end, and you were right. When do you think this Superior Bloodlines thing is going to come to a head?"

"Soon." I said. "They're tipping their hand, they're acting irrationally, they're acting like very scared animals on the run. I can't be sure, but I'm thinking this Spring, early summer. I thought Westboro would be resolved by July 4th, and it was. I'll give that same date for now."

"What about the Black Velvet Killer?" Cindy asked.

"He's next. We need to get home so we can talk to John Meadows--"

My cellphone rang. It was Wes 'Coldiron' Masters."

"Sir," he said, "we just got a digital recording through email. It's a video clip, but blacked out and audio only. I'm sending it to your onboard computer now."

"Got it." said Cindy, who was typing on the onboard computer console. She brought up the file, and we listened.

"It's all about the power, Commander Troy..." the eerie voice said, "it's all about... the power..."

Finis... for now.

This will be continued in the next series, "Power"...