Midnight City Ch. 02

Diane continued: "The Governor of the State, Val Jared, has asked the FBI to continue to take the lead in the case, but that is being contested by Attorney General John Barclay. Tiffany was A.G. Barclay's daughter, and he understandably would like for his own State's law enforcement agencies to be assigned the case."

Diane went on: "Governor Jared recently won the Governor's race over SBI Director Jack Lewis by a razor-thin margin, and recounts are being done in several parts of the State. Many citizens are concerned that the actual vote tallies did not match the exit polls and the polls that led up to Election Day, and believe the discrepancy lies in the actual vote totals. Although SBI Director Lewis has conceded the race, it remains to be seen if he will remain as SBI Director, or if he will step down before January 1st."

Diane then said: "And the battle for the future of the SBI is already shaping up. State Senator Katherine Woodburn, a Democrat from the 1st District, is leading the charge of the Democrats in the Statehouse to maintain a strong SBI as the central and premiere law enforcement agency in the State. Governor Jared has made no comments to this point, but sources tell the City National Newsdesk that he plans to break the SBI apart, if not destroy it altogether, leaving our children prey to drug dealers throughout the State..."

"Hell, this is making me miss Bettina." I said to Cindy as we ate breakfast at the City Diner, which was located between our hotel and the Federal Building. It had extremely good food, at least for my tastes, and Cindy was not complaining either as she wolfed down her massive, three-egg-steak-and-cheese omelette and three pancakes. Admittedly, I had the same, though I was eating more slowly and realized I might not finish it off.

"You're hungry." I said. "Callie must be wearing you out. Two nights in a row, too." That got me a 'look', but then Cindy relented.

"Yeah." she said. "How did you know about the first night? I didn't mention it to you."

"Observation, deduction, and knowledge, mon ami." I said. "Okay, it was the knowledge part. Laura told me she sent Callie over here, and where could Callie have been without checking in with me? Why, with you, my dear cousin."

Cindy nodded, then her ice blue eyes began to sparkle as she said "And you, Iron Crowbar? Two women last night? I'm shocked you're not starved yourself."

"I had a good dinner first." I replied with a grin. "What gave it away? The two women, that is?"

"Two different colors of lipstick still on your neck." Cindy replied. Damn, that was pretty sharp observing! I thought to myself. Then Cindy half-grinned and said "And the fact that it was obvious that Sandra really wanted to fuck you, and Lindy told me she was going to share you with her. Share... not give away, mind you."

I laughed, and then said "So, what did you and Callie learn last night?"

Cindy relayed to me the details of Callie's findings, including that Callie had offered Norelle Black a porn contract. "So Don," she said as she finished, "before we go visit our FBI friends again, what do you think is going on with this? Family member? Customer? Something or someone else?"

"I don't know yet, I just don't know." I said. "And it's not for a lack of thinking about it. I have the clues at the tip of my fingers, right on the edge of my mind... but I'm just not seeing it yet. And I still have that nagging question: how does a 20-year-old girl get around two States without owning nor apparently being in possession of a car?"

"Think she had her own 'Kato' to drive her around?" Cindy asked. "And do you think that 'Kato' is involved somehow?"

"I think my Kato, who is otherwise a great Detective," I replied, "is possibly jumping the gun a bit." Cindy wasn't amused, so I said "Certainly your hypothesis is a real possibility, but I have doubts..."

"Another question, and tangential to the subject." Cindy said. "We're working with Jack Muscone's FBI team, but his boss, the Deputy Director, is here, following the case, watching over us. Any idea why? The political nature of it?"

"Are you sure that's a tangential subject?" I asked, peering at Cindy. As she peered back I said "I think there may be two reasons. First, the politics you suggest may be a part of it all, but there are other threads running through this. And second... well, I think you'll be understanding that without my help, and soon. But don't ask me to mention what it is... in case I'm wrong."

"You're never wrong." Cindy replied.

"Au contraire, ma cousine!" I asserted. "I have my more-than-fair-share of wrong ideas and misses. And the biggest problem is that when I miss... it's far worse than if one of our Detectives misses or our FBI friends miss. That's the price I pay for those times I am right."

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

The morning meeting with the FBI began with a conference call to TCPD Headquarters. Mary Mahoney Milton appeared on the monitor, her hair still blue.

"We've put out an APB on this Al Guilford that Tiffany swore out a complain on." said Mary. "The Campus Police went to the Tau Fraternity House, but they said he wasn't there. They also said he didn't come back to School this Fall Semester, but he's registered and his matriculation was paid."

"Check his class schedule." I said. "Then ask his professors if he showed up for classes. Get my wife Laura to help arrange that, if needed. If the professors say he's in School, go back to the Tau house and arrest anyone who says he didn't come back to school, and we'll start leaning on them." Mary nodded as she made a note. "By the way, where is Al Guilford from?"

Mary replied "The only address we have on him is an apartment in Town that he shares with three other Taus, which is his current address. It's off University Avenue, and many college students are in those apartment complexes. We have no address on him before then; even his college applications show that address."

"Wow." I said. "That is very interesting. See if you can find any family for him, any other address. Okay, anything else over there?" I asked.

"No sir." said Mary. "We're still waiting to hear from the judge on the phone records. And as to everything else, the Campus Police are helping us out really well."

"That's good." I said. We made our goodbyes and disconnected.

"Okay, what else do we have?" said Jack Muscone.

"We began running a facial recognition program yesterday afternoon." said Lindy Linares. "We're trying to find out if Tiffany had any other aliases, or would be spotted somewhere. This is partly to find out if she might have a car under another name."

"Good thinking." I said.

"It was Captain Ross that gave us the idea, sir." said Lindy.

"You're giving away all my secrets!" said Cindy, though she looked pleased at being given the recognition.

"Good secret thinking, Green Crowbar." I said. "Did the search turn up anything?"

"No." said Lindy. "No visits to any ATMs, either, which is very interesting."

"She was doing cash business at the strip clubs." Cindy said. "Probably didn't need a bank account."

"You know... let me check something." I said. I brought up the City CSI's report on Tiffany's rooms above the Club. "Okay, they found no money, none at all, in either of her apartment rooms. They used dogs and sonar to search for hidden places, and came up 'no joy' on the search. So where was she hiding her money?"

"I've got something, as well." said Jack Muscone. "I revisited John Barclay's finances. His wife has a lot of money in trusts, and he made a good bit in his banking associations. They had educational IRAs for each of their kids, and that was paying for Tiffany's schooling. No strange amounts of money coming in or going out from or to any strange locations."

"They didn't buy her a car..." I said, mostly to myself and halfway in a reverie. "They had the money, but didn't buy her a car..."

"You are really stuck on this 'car' thing, aren't you?" Cindy queried, peering hard at me. Fortunately for her, I didn't really hear her.

"Now Al Guilford... he had a car... he was giving her rides..." I mused. "Then they had a falling out... she makes a complaint, which he denies..."

"We have a national APB out for him and his car." said Sandra Speer helpfully.

An FBI Agent came in with a folder full of papers. "Sir," he said, "here are the phone records you wanted. The City judge gave us a warrant."

"Thank you." said Jack Muscone, taking the folder. As the Agent left, he whispered "About damn time." He passed the folder down to me, and I opened it and scanned it.

"Okay... Tiffany's phone, the one found half a mile from the crime scene, was actually in her dad's name under a four-phone family plan. Calls to Laura's phone... I know that number by heart... calls to and from the two girls that were interviewed yesterday... calls to and from Al Guilford, until the day she made the legal complaint against him... and calls to her brother... which ended abruptly late last Spring... until one Saturday morning."

"I guess that's the one her father brought up." said Cindy. "And then they didn't hear from her again."

"Yeah." I said, my voice not sounding convinced. "Okay, Betty Lamarr had a cell phone. Most calls were to an answering service... those would be customers trying to hire her for sex, and she was checking her messages... calls to and from the Club where she and Norelle worked... oh, what is this?"

I looked up and over at Cindy. "Norelle said something about the tabloids?"

"So Callie told me." Cindy said.

"Well, there's a call here last Friday." I said. "It's to Ralph Lycra... who is the Editor of City World Gazette, a celebrity tabloid with a notorious reputation for breaking exposés of scandalous behavior."

Part 8 - City Connections, State Disconnections

"Hey, Sapper," I asked as I talked to the City Detective on the phone, "I have a problem, and maybe you can help."

"What's that, Commander?" said Sapper.

"We know that Tiffany Barclay called Ralph Lycra of City World Gazette, using her phone under the name Betty Lamarr." I said. "We need to find out what that was about. Obviously Lycra will never say anything to the Police, citing protected sources. Have you got any ideas?"

"I'll ask Arthur Wilshire if he has any sources inside the City World Gazette." said Sapper. I remembered Wilshire from the case where we'd busted Susan Wexler. (Author's note: 'Reichenbach', Ch. 2)

A few minutes later, Sapper called back. "Yes sir, Wilshire has been paying one of the beat writers there, a Todd Chubb, for scoops from time to time. Wilshire shelled out some serious cash, but got Chubb to admit that Lycra got a call Friday and made an appointment, but later that night said it was nothing he could use. Then Lycra was spending some cash Saturday."

"Okay." I said. "Is Wilshire going to put in for reimbursement, or should I ask the Feds to do it?"

"Ask the Feds, if you will." said Sapper. "We prefer not having the paperwork. Too many prying eyes around here read that stuff, and we get fucked up later on, if you know what I mean." I did know, and I was glad to be in charge of a clean Police Force...

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

"Hi Mary." I said, having called my Special Assistant for I.T. on my Police cellphone. "I need for you and Myron to look for something for me. Cellphone tower pings."

"You're so far behind us, you think you're ahead, Commander." Mary said irreverently. "We just got that in. Ethan's phone pinged all over the place... including the City during the hours the crime could have occurred."

"Interesting." I said. "Put that into the evidence servers, Mary."

"Again, sir..." Mary started.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." I said. "No marathon races for me..."

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

"Wanna pick up Lycra, and lean on him?" Jack Muscone asked.

"Naw." I said. "It won't do any good. Lycra will lie like a dog in the shade if he says anything at all."

"So what's this about?" asked Lindy Linares. "Why was Tiffany going to the tabloids? Did she have something on someone? Maybe a politician that knew her father? Or maybe she knew something about him, or his past?"

"Or her brother, maybe?" Cindy asked. "She went from liking him to hating him... maybe he did something, their father covered it up or suppressed it, and she was going to sell the information to the tabloid."

"I'm not connecting any of these dots." Sandra Speer said. "Why would Tiffany go to the tabloids? And by that I mean: she was making money turning tricks and performing at the Club, in addition to anything her parents were giving her; she didn't need money."

"I'm thinking more in the line of herself." said Jack Muscone. "She could go to the tabloids and say she's the daughter of a politician and she's a prostitute, but why hurt her mother with that kind of exposure? Her mom said they were a close-knit family."

"Up until the time she left for School." I said. "After that, Tiffany kept her distance from them, and was---"

Just then, Special Agent in Charge Clark Webster bounded in. "I just got a call from our Agents over in Sparta. Al Guilford was found. He was on the Eastern State campus. My guys went to pick him up, but Guilford demanded a lawyer and demanded an extradition hearing to be taken over the State line."

"Well versed in procedure and law, I perceive." I said. "Jack, we better get down there."

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

We drove in two FBI vehicles, blue lights burning and at high rates of speed. It still took nearly 90 minutes to get to the Sparta Police station.

"He's lawyered up." said the Sparta Police Captain who had come to greet us. "He's called a lawyer, who isn't here yet. Hasn't said a word." I looked through the one-way glass into the interrogation room. Al Guilford was a slender young white man, college age, wavy black hair and something of a long, slanted nose.

A few moments later, the Captain came in and said "His lawyer is here. He's coming in by the main door." We watched as the hallway door to the Interrogation Room opened (they did not have the dual-door-lock system the TCPD had), and in walked the legal beagle.

"Damn." I said softly. "He'll recognize all of us."

"Well, it's telling that he's the one that came." said Muscone. Indeed, we were looking at Forest Gillis, the lawyer who'd represented several people with ties to either Superior Bloodlines or other white-supremacy groups.

"Yes, very informative." I said. "Well, as soon as I walk in there, he's going to know or figure out everything."

"Want to stay here and watch?" asked Muscone.

"Naw, let's go." I said. Jack and I went through the door and into the room. As I expected, Forest Gillis's eyes were wide with shock when he saw me.

"Why... I did not expect to find the Iron Crowbar this far out of his jurisdiction." said Gillis.

"FBI Consultant Crowbar today." I said. "The country is my jurisdiction. Of course, Mr. Guilford had a complaint filed against him in my home County. Kicked a girl out of a car, he did."

"Bullshit!" gasped Guilford. "I did not do anything to that girl! I never even took her to Point Hollow. What she said was total bullshit." Gillis finally got Guilford to stop talking.

"That's what I wanted to ask you, Al." I said. "Why would she make that accusation?"

"I need a couple of moments with my client." said Gillis. Unfortunately, the request was reasonable, so Jack and I went back to the anteroom.

"He's pretty passionate about that being a false charge." Cindy said. "I can really feel the vibe off him... a lot of anger still there."

"Yes, interesting." I said. "I just hope Gillis won't have him invoke."

A few minutes later, we were called back in. Forest Gillis said "You can talk to him here, but I will not allow him to be taken across the State Line to the City without an extradition hearing. And I've told him that Tiffany was murdered, so if you go there, I might ask him to invoke."

"I just have a few questions." I said. "And they're about that incident at Point Hollow."

"It never happened." Guilford said. "I never went up there, and definitely never went there with her."

"Did you give Tiffany rides at other times? To other places?" I asked.

"Yeah." said Al.

"Did you give her rides home, to Acropolis City?" I asked.

"A couple of times." said Al.

"Are you still enrolled at the University, or at Eastern State?" I asked.

"I'm in the process of transferring." said Al. "I registered for the semester over there, but then I enrolled here and I'm trying to get my credits transferred."

"Al, did Tiffany pay you to drive her home? Or drive her around?" I asked.

"No." said Al.

"Did someone else, anyone else, pay you to drive Tiffany anywhere?" I asked. Al's eyes got shifty. "And remember, this guy is an FBI Agent. If you lie to him, it's a Federal crime."

"In that case," said Forest Gillis, "let's conclude this interview at this time."

As Jack and I left, he said "Why did you give Al that reminder? That stopped the whole thing!"

"Because Al is either entirely innocent, or he's the murderer." I said. "If he's innocent, I don't want him fucking up out of fear. If he's guilty of the whole thing, then lying to a Federal Agent is the least of his worries."

"Yeah, but he was talking." said Muscone.

"He was about to be at the point where he would have stopped talking." I said. "And we already have everything useful we need from him."

"Maybe you do..." Muscone started, then stopped. "Oh... shit. You've solved this thing, haven't you?"

"I think my train of thought is boarding at the right station." I said. "But we've got a long way to go to wrap it up with a bow."

"So, what's the answer?" Cindy asked.

"We need to talk to Ethan... without his parents being present." I said. I turned to Sandra and Cindy. "I am wondering if, while we're down here, if you ladies can perhaps persuade his mother to let us talk to her son alone?"

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

"Hello, Mrs. Barclay." Cindy said after being admitted into the Barclay home. "Is your husband here?"

"No, he's making arrangements for Tiffany's funeral." said Mrs. Barclay. Cindy and Sandra knew that, and had timed their arrival to coincide with Barclay's absence. Mrs. Barclay's face looked as if she had been crying, but Cindy was still seeing a more chronic sadness there.

"Is Ethan here?" Sandra Speer asked.

"He's... I don't know. Why?" asked Daphne Barclay.

"Ma'am," said Cindy, "we'd like your permission to talk with your son alone, without anyone else being present."

"I... I can't allow that." said Mrs. Barclay. "John would be furious. He's already said you can't speak to Ethan without him being present."

"We can if you give that permission, Mrs. Barclay." said Sandra. "And it's very important if we're going to be able to solve your daughter's death."

"I..." Mrs. Barclay stammered, then said "No. You may not speak with him without my husband present, and probably our lawyer as well. Now please leave."

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

As we were driving back, I said "Jack, take the road that leads to where Tiffany was killed."

"All right." he said. "Want to see the crime scene again?"

"Yes." I said. "I want to check some things.

At the scene, I looked around in the afternoon daylight. "Okay, I see that plate about fifty feet down from where Tiffany was found. It's a marker of the State Line. Hmmm..."

"What are you looking for?" asked Sandra.

"I'm not so much looking for anything," I said, "but rather I'm looking to see how we can stage this scene again, and draw in the criminal that murdered her. I'm going to need you guys or the Deputy Director to help me with some stuff... including a search warrant."