Moonlight Shadow Ch. 03

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When I came back to my office, Laura was talking with Helena in the anteroom. They were friends from our families being in the Libertines group together, of course. Laura followed me into my office.

"I got all of Headquarters done today on the psych evals." Laura said. "I'll go to County Jail tomorrow and start on Precinct 1."

"Cool beans." I said. "Oh, I wanted to ask you... why the crowbar battle this morning? Not that I mind, of course, and you will perform... special... tasks for me, for me winning so convincingly..."

"Say whaa?" Laura asked. I just arched my eyebrows at her, and she conceded.

"Okay, okay." she said. "Truth be told, I've been working with Cindy and Callie on all of us improving our skills. You're not supposed to know that before the Police Boxing Matches, by the way, but the cat's out of the bag. Cindy knows you won't reveal your 'playbook' to her before the Matches, as you successfully hid them year before last. So she asked me to come down, spar with you, and see where both you and I were."

"And she found out, I daresay." I said with a little smile. "Well, if you want to train with me some more, I'll be glad to do it... but not at home. I don't want some idiot calling in a domestic dispute call to the Police Department. That's the one thing they cannot take my word for if there were a real situation.

"True enough." said Laura. "Anyway, I've always known you're good with Aikido, but I had no idea how good you've become. Who have you been training with? Todd and Teresa?"

"No." I said. "The top BOW officials do get training, and Todd and Teresa are getting extended training from Takaki Misaki's people, but I've been working with a sensei for a while now, in conjunction with my physical therapy for my back."

"Besides..." I added with a grin, "I've been taking Aikido for a while now. If you keep training, you might get up to speed with me."

"Darling," Laura admonished, "you were in diapers when I began martial arts training with the CIA."

"Darling," I replied with a bigger grin, "I really was in diapers, pretty much, when I began taking Aikido with my parents and Elizabeth."

"O-kayyyyy!" Laura said resignedly. "I lost the crowbar battle, and now I'm losing the repartee battle, as well." She got up, came around the desk, and kissed me on the mouth. "I'll see you when you get home, after the Council meeting. And be ready to have those... special... tasks performed upon your cock..."

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8:00pm, Tuesday, April 10th. The Chief, myself, and Cindy sat on chairs against the side wall of the chamber into which the Town & County Council had retired in executive session. Also invited were Sergeant Andrew Prince of the TCPD, and Fireman Glasgow of the TCFD, both licensed helicopter pilots.

The podium and microphone were at the far end, in front of the projection screen. Going around from the podium's left were Loran T. Michaels, Malinda Adams, J.P. Goldman, Edward R. Steele, Ian McGhillie (Roy's father). The People's Choice Mayor Larry P. Vaughan was at the other end of the table, just in front of the heavy double doors. To the Mayor's left and on around were Dagmar Schoen, John 'Jack' Colby, Reginald B.F. Lewis, Susan Weston, and Kelly Carnes.

There had been a number of people in the red t-shirts in the audience in the public Council chamber, obviously a carefully orchestrated group effort to protest my use of the helicopter, and to say my actions were 'racist'. But John Colby shut them all down, because when each one came to the microphone to speak, he asked "Do you care that there were two wounded Police Officers at the scene?" The anarchists could not get past him on that; it was obvious they didn't give a damn that two Police Officers were hurt. So Colby shut them down, and no other Council member protested him doing that.

The Council then went into executive session, where everyone expected the real fireworks to begin. And everyone's expectations were met.

"Okay," said the Mayor, "we have some Police awards to consider. The Purple Orders are obvious, and we have a Police Medal application for Detective McGhillie. The other order of business is the Board of Inquiry findings that Commander Troy acted properly in stopping the incident in MLK Park last week."

"Let's get the medals out of the way first." said John Colby. "There is no Board of Inquiry for it; the application was put in by Captain Ross, and approved by Commander Troy, Chief Moynahan, and Sheriff Allgood. Ian, we're very proud of your son and his actions, but you may have to sit this discussion out."

"For the discussion of the medal, I agree." said McGhillie. "I will not vote in that, and will just say now that I am as proud of my son as any father could possibly be, and his late mother is smiling upon him from Heaven above. But to be clear, I will be participating in the discussion to follow, that of his rescue by Commander Troy."

"You should not participate in that, either---" began Kelly Carnes, but the Mayor was ready with a hot gavel. He tapped it on the table with authority.

"That is not open for discussion, Mrs. Carnes." said the Mayor. "Let's discuss the medal application."

"I believe it should be approved." said Jack Colby. "And I am making a motion in saying that."

"I second that motion." said Dagmar Schoen.

"Discussion?" asked the Mayor.

"I believe a Police Medal is too high an award." said Kelly Carnes. "While Detective McGhillie's actions are commendable and to be rewarded, I believe we are getting into a period of what I call 'medal creep', where we keep awarding medals too high for the action they're rewarded for. For example, Captain Croyle's Medal of Valor was justified, if only because we had nothing even higher to award her. But Police and Fire Medals for those that went in to retrieve her? As I stated then, that was too much, even if there was danger associated with doing that."

"I must agree with that." said Malinda Adams. "Though Officer McGhillie's actions were laudable, there was a time when a Police Medal would not even have been considered, and a Star of Gallantry would've been considered after a Board of Inquiry convened to investigate it. Our Peace Officers should not expect the very highest awards for brave but not necessarily extraordinary actions."

John Colby tried to argue against them: "Detective McGhillie went into the line of fire to save another Officer's life. He was wounded himself in the process. Doesn't that count for anything?"

"Yes." said Susan Weston. "And it's why I'll support awarding him a Star of Gallantry. I agree we need to dial back the level of the awards that have been made in the past, though."

The vote was 5-4, with Ian McGhillie abstaining on account that it was his son being considered for the award, to amend the motion so that Roy McGhillie would receive the Star of Gallantry. The motion then carried 9-0 to award it. I was inwardly pleased; we'd put him in for too high an award, the Police Medal, to make sure that the inevitable downgrade would be to a Star and not lower.

"Okay," said the Mayor. "I don't want to be here all night, so I will keeping a tight leash on all of you for this. The Board of Inquiry cleared Commander Troy in a 2-1 vote. Do we concur?"

"I move we accept their findings as is." said Edward Steele.

"I second that." said John Colby.

"I wish to counter-propose." said Kelly Carnes. This was actually an amendment to the original bill, but it'd be a one-or-the-other situation. "I move we accept the dissenting opinion, and not clear Commander Troy for the obscene and unnecessary paramilitary actions he took during that incident."

"I second that." said Malinda Adams.

"All right." said the Mayor. "Keep this orderly, calm, and reasoned. We'll go around the horn. Ms. Carnes?"

Kelly Carnes started, using pre-prepared notes: "This is a relatively small American town in the heart of the United States of America. It is not a war zone like Afghanistan or Baghdad. We are not at war with our own citizens. For one of our Police Officers to fly a weapon meant to be used in war in an aggressive, paramilitary action that endangered our citizens was embarrassing to this Council and to the Citizens of the Town and County we represent. I believe the actions of Commander Troy were so egregious, so overreactive, and so excessive, that he should not only be not indemnified, but he should be fired for cause from the Town & County Police Force."

Mayor Vaughan said "Ms. Weston?"

Susan Weston was much more careful in her language: "Speaking as a former Police Captain, my problem with that situation is that I am not convinced that the use of a helicopter gunship was the only nor even the best method of ending the incident and rescuing the wounded Officers. This Council expended large amounts of money creating a Special Operations team, which includes a SWAT unit and technological support such as drones. Are there no TCPD snipers at all? No one able to shoot these criminals with a scoped rifle at a not-unreasonable range? The tactics used were non-standard at the least, outside the norm. Though no one outside the criminals were hurt this time, next time we might not be so lucky."

Reginald B.F. Lewis was next. "First of all," he said, "I am glad that my friend Ian McGhillie's son was not badly wounded and was able to be rescued by Commander Troy's actions. However, I have been inundated, overwhelmed, by complaints from my constituents that these actions were directed at blacks in the black community. Let me be quick to say that I don't believe Commander Troy is a racist nor was he considering race in his actions. And that may be part of the problem... maybe he should have realized it. The Police and the Black Community the nation over are in a state of adversarial relations, and this incident did not help."

"Mr. Colby?" asked the Mayor.

John Colby said "I'm appalled that the Police are expected to consider race as an issue in doing their jobs. Should they not make arrests when they see a crime being committed in a black district vs. a white one? But that's a side issue. The important issue here was brought up by Ms. Weston. I believe the way Commander Troy handled this was the best possible way. Limited exposure of Police, directed fire in as safe a direction as possible, overwhelmed the perps, ended the incident quickly."

Dagmar Schoen agreed: "It is ironic to me that our Police Commander can fly helicopters in the first place because Pastor Westboro had him learn to fly... so that Westboro could murder Commander Troy via flying a helicopter that was rigged with explosives. Now we have people complaining that Commander Troy used those skills with surgical precision to stop criminals committing crimes, and to rescue Police Officers."

"Ian?" said the Mayor.

"I object to Mr. McGhillie's participation in this debate on this motion." said Carnes. "I demand he recuse himself from speaking and from voting----."

"NO!" shouted McGhillie. "I am under no such obligation! I will speak! And I will vote! And that vote will count!" The Mayor tapped his gavel.

"He's right, he's under no obligation to recuse himself, as we're talking about Commander Troy, not Roy McGhillie." said the Mayor. "If you don't like that, Ms. Carnes, get a lawyer and pursue legal avenues of recourse. For now, Mr. McGhillie has the floor."

"Thank you." said McGhillie. "I will only say that I thank God for Commander Troy. He takes care of his Police Officers, and he shows courage and integrity in doing so. You should all be grateful that we have a man like Commander Troy leading our Police Force!"

"I'll second that." said Edward Steele. "I mean, what do you people want? A sniper would be too slow, and might only get one perp before the others take cover and shoot at our Police from covered positions. The Police did not choose MLK Park as the place to exchange drugs for money and explosives. The perps illegally converted weapons to shoot full automatic... and some of you are obsessed with our Police Commander shooting back at them with a weapon that we're lucky to have Officers that can use!"

J.P. Goldman kept it short: "If criminals see that we can do things like that to them, maybe they'll stay the hell away from our County. I'm all for it, objections be damned."

Malinda Adams was peeved. "I agree with Ms. Carnes. Weapons of all-out war have no place in the hands of our Peace Officers. The brutal display of testosterone-fueled barbarism exhibited by Commander Troy was offensive, and frightening."

"I think this reflects back to Sheriff Daniel Allgood's cowboy policing policies." said Loran T. Michaels. "I understand Commander Troy's desires to rescue his Officers, and I am as glad as all of you that Ian's courageous son was not killed and was rescued along with the Officer Barker. But I think Mr. Silas's opinion in the Inquiry was correct: the optics are horrible for all of us."

"Sergeant Prince," said the Mayor, "can you fly the Cobra?"

"I'm still learning it, sir." said Sergeant Andrew Prince. "I'm qualified to fly the Bell and also the Hospital's Life Flight chopper if needed."

"Glasgow?" asked the Mayor.

"I have no experience at all with the Cobra. I've flown the Bell for emergency missions." said Glasgow.

"Chief Moynahan," said the Mayor, do you have any statement to make?"

"Yes sir, I dooooo." said the Chief. "First, the only reason that wasn't me flying the Cobra is because Commander Troy beat me to the Airport. Yes, I can fly the Cobra, and I was going to... but with his usual speed in finding the right solution quickly, the Iron Crowbar was the one that flew it. In that light, I would ask that if it had been me flying the aircraft, and all else being equal, would some of you politicians be having the total meltdown you are having?"

"And my second comment is that like many Police Forces, we are outmanned, outgunned, and have to perform our jobs of protecting the citizens flawlessly or we'll be sued to death. And may be sued anyway." continued Moynahan. "And yet some politicians would do all they can to further restrict us, make our jobs harder, and still yell and scream if we don't perform perfectly. I don't give a damn about 'optics'; my Police Force performed well that night, and I stand behind every one of all my Officers's actions, and especially those of Commander Troy."

"Captain Ross," said the Mayor, "was there not any other way to resolve that situation?"

"I really don't appreciate you trying to make me contradict or oppose my direct boss while he's sitting here next to me." Cindy said with alacrity.

"Don't hold back." I said quietly.

"To answer your question, Mr. Mayor," Cindy said, "since we had the helicopter and a man able to fly it well and shoot so well... no, there was no better way to resolve the situation. Not having the chopper would've made it a lot harder for us."

"Okay, Commander Troy," said the Mayor, "do you still feel your actions were the correct way, and the best way, to resolve that situation?"

"My Officers are alive and recovering." I said. "No other innocents were hurt. That's what matters to me."

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

"I'm stunned at how orderly that was." I said tiredly as Cindy, the Chief, and I sat at the 'Command' table at the Cop Bar. Cindy and the Chief were having beer. I didn't feel like drinking alcohol, so I had Coke Zero.

"Get the feeling it was scripted?" asked Cindy, "and that everyone had their parts and prepared speeches down?"

"At least you were cleared." said the Chief. "7-3, with Carnes, Adams, and Reginald Lewis voting against you."

"I thought Weston would go against you." said Cindy. "And we never know how 'Flip-A-Coin Loran' will go."

"Part of the script." I said. "Weston and Michaels are swing votes, and probably will be going forward. The real issue and fight is going to be what they do to regulate my use of those eeeeeee-vil war weapons."

"We'll burn those bridges when we come to them." said Moynahan. "Well, it's over. For now."

"The murder case and the resolution of the drug case aren't over." I said. "Bringing in those explosives... now why do that?..."

"He's either very tired, or he's in reverie-land." said Cindy. "Come on, Don, drive me home then go home and get some sleep."

"All right." I said. "Chief, how are you getting home?"

"I'll take him." growled a voice behind us. It was Chief Griswold.

"Chief!" I said. "You're wife is going to be mad at me for letting you be out this late!" I teased him.

"Har." said the old Chief. "She's still at her Presbyterian Women's meeting. Come on, Sean, let's go... and let these young whippersnappers get some rest."

*BRING!* *BRING!* *BRING!*

It was my Police iPhone. I answered it. "This is the Duty Desk, sir." said the voice at the other end. "We just got a call that some kids spotted an eight-foot-tall man at Ronald Reagan Park, on the north side near where that body was found recently.

Part 16 - Slender In Crowbar Vibes

My blue lightbar was flashing as Cindy and I rode in my SUV to Ronald Reagan Park. The walking trail was wide enough for vehicles, so we took it around by the River and then north through the wooded area to the north-side finger of land. A Police Cruiser was already there, bearing Sergeant Morton and Sr. Patrolman Johnson. They were talking to four teen boys.

"Okay, guys, what's going on here?" I asked as Cindy and I walked up.

"Wow, it's the Iron Crowbar!" said one of the boys. "He's almost as tall as that thing we saw!"

"Sir," said Johnson, "they were just telling us about seeing a very tall man in a suit and tie, but he had no face."

"He had a face." said one of the boys. "Just no features on it. No eyes, nose, or mouth."

"We tried to get camera footage of him." said one of the boys, holding up a minicam. "But it's messed up.

"Show me." I said. The boy started the video on the screen on the back of the cam. For a second, the unmistakeable sight of a tall man in a black suit and red tie appeared, then the video began flickering out with horizontal lines of interference and a buzzing sound.

"Looks like you boys have sighted the Slender Man." I said. "Sure you're not making this up?"

"I swear to God, Mr. Crowbar!" one of the boys exclaimed. "We all saw him for real!"

"Where did he go off to?" I asked.

"He was standing there, by the River up there." said a boy. "It looked like he was getting closer without even moving, and we all started running back to the main park. When we turned around to see if he was chasing us, he wasn't there anymore."

"Okay." I said. "Boys, you get to ride to the Police Station with Sergeant Morton and Patrolman Johnson, who will take statements from you and call your parents to come get you. Thanks for calling us about this Slender Man guy." The boys were loaded into the Police cruiser, a tight fit in the backseat, and taken to HQ.

"Think that was real?" Cindy asked as we got back in the car.

"They weren't the least bit worried when I said we were going to call their parents." I said. "That suggests to me that they're telling the truth, and are more scared of what they saw than they are of the Police and especially their parents."

"Makes sense." Cindy said. Then she exclaimed "Holy shit! LOOK!" I looked north and a chill raced up my spine. There he was, two hundred feet north of us, next to the basket on the disc golf course. It was the Slender Man!

His featureless face and gloved hands seemed to glow white, the same color as the moon. I felt some kind of energy reaching towards me, and I mentally pushed back to repel it.

"Get your iPhone!" I said as I reached to turn on the dashcam camera in my Police SUV.