Internal Affairs Ch. 15

Peter got back to the motel in the late afternoon. He began to school Trish in what he suspected happened. She verified one of the Sheriff's investigator who had been shot at was working the day Miles died.

"So Deputy Diggs killed Miles," Trish asked.

"It's just a theory with not even circumstantial evidence backing it up at this time," Peter said.

The two of them made love that night, then fell asleep exhausted. The time drifted by until the commotion in the parking lot woke the two of them. There was a sunset type glow in the sky over the parking lot at 2am.

Peter rolled from the bed and walked naked to the windows. He saw Trish's econobox burning across the parking lot. He was glad he had taken Witness Protection 101 in DC. Seth's people had stressed never take a ground floor motel unit, and never park your car overnight in front of your motel unit or apartment.

He resisted the urge to rush outside and catch a bullet for his trouble. Instead, while keeping as calm as possible, he walked to the sleeping Trish and said, "I think you are going to want to see this."

It was time she realized it wasn't just an intellectual game in which they were involved. He waited beside the bed until she was awake then led her to the window. He restrained her as the fire truck finally arrived.

"What the fuck happened?" she asked in a voice most women would use to advise her husband that she was going to the store. Her words were emotional but the tone was just dead.

"Glad to see you aren't going to get all gushy about it," Peter said.

"Why should I. It's insured and even if it weren't, it's just a car," she said, way to logically.

"Most women would feel violated," Peter said, then changed the subject. "We need to see the parking lot CCTV tape before the cops do." After he spoke Peter dressed quickly then slipped the .38 wheel gun into his belt under his parka before leaving for office. The whole family was present in the lobby and looking out the window..

"I'm staying in room 213. That is my car that is burning out there in the parking lot. I want to view the surveillance tape," Peter demanded.

There was something in his voice which made the motel owner comply. The old man gave him the security code to view the tape online. It showed a full sized SUV pull through the parking lot. When it reached Trish's econobox, the passenger threw a liquor bottle filled with gasoline on top of the smaller car. The bottle was followed by a road flare. The small car went up with a whoosh. There was no sound but Peter remembered hearing the sound in his sleep. Maybe he just imagined that he had heard it.

Peter sent Seth at the DOJ a link to the tape, before it got 'lost'. Then he went back to their room to await the local police. He found Trish on the phone at 2am. "Who are you talking to?" he asked.

"Daddy would never forgive me, if I didn't call," Trish said.

"Well, give the old bastard my love," Peter said.

"My insurance company's claims agent?" She asked genuinely confused.

"Sorry, I forgot," Peter said shaking his head. Peter heard only her end of the conversation, so he wasn't sure of the timing, but it appeared that the agent was going to arrange for a car to be delivered to the motel. She also seemed to agree to forward copies of the police report and pictures of the burned out shell to the company.

While Trish did all that, Peter made coffee. He even gave her one of the cups while they waited for the cops. "I bet you never hear the end of this," Peter said.

"I bet you are right. Daddy will try to have a body guard accompany me every where," she said.

"That might not be a bad idea," Peter said. He said it even though he knew it would be overkill.

"Don't you get all protective of me," she said. "It's the things I like best about you. That you expect me to pull my own weight."

A knock on the door prevented any further discussion. The two cops came into the room. They gave their names, which Peter ignored. They got all the fact while giving nothing away. Standard police bullshit, Peter thought.

"So any ideas what happened?" Peter asked.

"Since you don't have any enemies, it's hard to say. Maybe a case of mistaken identity," the older cop said. "Probably all over now, still it might be a good idea to at least change motels."

"Sounds like good advice," Trish said in her cold flat voice. Peter knew that she was being sarcastic. She waited until they left then said, "Fucking cops."

"At least that," Peter agreed. "So do we go home and do the rest of the research from there. We can have all our ducks in a row when we come back to spring the trap."

"Are you that confident," Trish asked.

"Not at all, but the odds just shortened a little. If we were miles off base, no one would bother to try to scare us off. The cops are the only ones who knew where we were staying. They had the access to the DMV records to recognize the car. The problem is there were two people used in the Bombing." Peter explained it patiently.

"So they were cops," Trish said.

"Either that or cops provided the information they acted on," Peter explained.

"Do you trust anyone?" Trish asked. "Or do you doubt everyone... No don't answer that."

"Trish, I will rent a car to finish this. It is getting to be dangerous," Peter said.

"No hell you don't. You don't get to drag my ass all over the eastern seaboard, then dump me at the finish line," she said. It came out just as unemotional as everything else she said.

"Very well," Peter said. "But I'm sending your father a text message."

"Go ahead, believe it or not I do say no to him quite often. If I didn't, I wouldn't have met you. He wanted to buy me an internship in Craven and Craven," Trish said.

"And they are," Peter said.

"I huge, corporate practice," Trish informed him.

"Well I'm glad you didn't let him. You are a great friend," Peter said.

"Friend? Why you ass. I hope we are more than friends," Trish said.

"If we are more than friends, what does that make you and Helen?" Peter asked.

"I guess that is another thing we need to work out when we get back to Detroit," Trish suggested.

"As I keep telling you, you need to go back now," Peter said.

"I'm staying at least till you figure out how to proceed. I am not leaving you stranded here," Trish said.

Things started to pop just before lunch. At eleven the rental car was delivered. While Trish returned the driver to his office, Peter sent a text message to Seth at the DOJ. He explained his theory to Seth. He didn't know if Seth would take his hobby investigation seriously or not.

The text he received later that day was simple. Book one room at the motel for a DOJ investigator.

Even Trish knew they were about to get hijacked. Unlike Peter she was livid. Peter had messaged Seth because he could not afford to have his cover blown. Which it would be, if the TV News cameras got wind of the story. It was most likely that they would.

"Paris Henson," the woman at the door said. Then she added, "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you."

"At least you have a sense of humor," Peter said with a smile.

"Oh, you thought I was joking," Paris said. She waved an FBI ID card in Trish's face.

"Well, I'm Trish and this is Peter. What makes you think we need help?" Trish asked still not happy by the intrusion.

Young lady, I am here on orders, if you have a problem have Mr Rabbit here send a text to the boss," she said it before Peter could explain.

"What does Iva have to do with this?" Trish asked.

"She didn't mean that boss, I have a friend at the DOJ from the old days. He is her boss not mine."

"Whatever," the older, heavier, Paris said. "Whoever you are Mr. Rabbit, you are supposed to walk me through the so called evidence, then we can make a plan to try and prove it."

First Peter reeled off the players from the TV shows and their positions in the list of suspects. "That is only for background, since we pretty much eliminated them." He also gave their alibis to explain why they were eliminated.

"That missing blackmail money needs to be looked into," Paris said.

"We researched it, but never could find what Miles, or the Blackmailer did with the unaccounted for portion of it. It is just a dead end." Peter explained.

"Okay so what do you think happened. I'm told by my boss that you have a bazaar theory," Paris said.

"We do," Trish said.

"Okay Blondie, what is your theory?" Paris asked.

"I wouldn't make fun of her," Peter said. "Her daddy plays golf with the president when he is in Detroit."

"Oh my, I should be careful. He might have me reassigned from this plum job," Paris added.

"How about we all try to get along? With a break or two this won't last more than a couple of days, and you will be a heroine."

"Why not stop all this pussy footing around and just tell me what it is you're thinking," Paris said.

Peter went on to lay it out complete with charts and satellite images. He also explained that some of the information wasn't really open and above board.

"Marvin Diggs is who I suspect. He is a detective sergeant on the vice unit. When it comes to moonshine and pot grower convictions, he has a reputation as the best of the best,

He was also shot at a couple of years ago by a pot grower protecting his turf."

Peter pulled up the patrol sergeant's report describing the scene. Peter handed the tablet he was using for his presentation to Paris.

"Okay, it looks like he knew his assailant since he had a pistol still holstered and he surely saw them pull up." Paris said.

"That's what I thought, along with everyone else. We all wasted a lot of time on that theory," Peter said. "What I think now is that Miles recognized him as a cop. Truthfully, I think it was the hero cop."

"Tell me why you think that," Paris demanded.

"Motive, means, opportunity, and he knew how to cover it up. I did some research," Peter said.

He pulled up the satellite image from the week before Miles was killed. "See this tiny cleaning on the stream. That was were Miles had the pump and the hose carrying the water runs up that path to the miners cabin. It's clearly shown there. Now The miner's shack viewed from the air could be a grow house, a still house, or a cook house. All kinds of things are possible. It's clear that something is going on there.

I think Marvin wanted another gold star, so he waited until he could catch Miles at the site before he went up to check it out. I believe he used a webcam on the road to catch him coming in. So he would have arrived after Miles started to load the sled. Miles wouldn't have pulled a pistol on a cop, even if he pulled up on him.

"But why did the cop shoot a man for no reason?" Paris asked.

"He might have though he had a reason. Remember this is a man with a history of being shot at by a drug gang," Peter replied.

"How much of this can you prove," she asked.

"Not a lot at the moment, but if you start to look officially, I think you can," Peter replied.

Give me a copy of your research and I'll recheck it after dinner. Then tomorrow I will have a long talk with Detective Marvin Diggs. I will interrogate him only if I don't find any holes in your research. He is going to have covered his tracks better than the average bad guy."

"Can you take Trish along for the meeting with the Sheriff," Peter asked

"I expected you to ask to go along. The boss said to be sure you didn't tag along, but he didn't mention Blondie. Sure why not she can distract them while I prod for information.

"We will talk at breakfast," Peter said.

"I don't like her," Trish said once Paris left the room.

"Why? because she is a wise ass?" Peter said.

"No because she is a homophobic bitch," Trish said with a smile.

"Ah, so if you can't charm them, they are homophobes?" Peter asked.

"Of course," Trish agreed.

At breakfast the next morning Paris said, "I looked it all over and you don't have enough."

"What do you need?" Peter asked.

"Some reason to get a search warrant for his computer," she said.

"Why don't you check the ballistics on his service weapon," Trish asked. "That weapon has to be available for testing at any time."

"Are you going to make the accusation that Marvin shot Miles?" Paris asked.

"Damn right I am," Trish said.

"Then we have Marvin brought in and I asked for a weapons check. That is when the shit begins to go rank." Paris said.

Peter watched the two of them leave the parking lot in both cars. It looked as though he would have a chance to run around the internet while he awaited their return. Which was just what he did at least until he fell asleep.

"Honey we are home," Paris said.

"What time is it?" Peter asked.

"6pm and all is right with the world," Trish said. "You should have seen Paris bully those guys. First the Sheriff wanted to stall, but Paris informed him that he didn't want to stonewall the DOJ. It was an official complain brought by a member of the bar and therefore an officer of the court.

She convinced him that he would be out in a second, if the DOJ pressed charges for aiding and abetting Marvin Diggs against him. The Sheriff called the Homicide investigator, then Marvin Diggs.

When asked for his service pistol Marvin turned it over. Paris was sharp enough to ask if Marvin carried it on the morning Miles died.

"No," Marvin said. "I dropped it in the river during a boat chase that spring."

"I thought Paris was sarcastic toward me. She showed him the tape from the motel parking lot. Then she identified the car as his son's. There was no tag, but there was a high school bumper sticker. When the DOJ got through with the video, one could even see the damaged corner on the sticker."

"Nice, did you ask him how he though his son would like bubba as his next prom date?" Peter asked Paris.

"No, but I will next time," Paris said. "The homicide man said I needed to keep quiet."

"You know it's all just fill in the blanks now." Peter said.

"Yes, we seized his computer and he lawyered up. If he refuses to cooperate tomorrow, we go at him on federal charges." Paris said. "It might take a month but we are going to get his smart ass."

"Then I think I am going to let you take over," Peter said.

"That was the understanding I got from the boss. Well Peter Rabbit you done good for a cowboy. Best of all nobody else died."

"Sometimes things just work out right." Peter said.

Paris stayed on, while Peter and Trish went back to face Iva the terrible. In the car on the drive back Trish asked, "What next?"

"I have no idea." Peter replied. "I expect Paris will call to update you as time goes by, but like she said it will take a least a month to her him arrested. The gun is never going to show up.

"Not the gun no, but guess what, Diggs was involved in another shooting the remember. He had to give a sample of his bullet for comparison to the recovered rounds from the drug dealer. If they match, he may just start looking for a deal." Trish explained.

"Damn, you learn quick," Peter said.