Power Ch. 02

"Okay." I said. "David, did you get anything from the FBI?"

"I got a massive set of emails from Special Agent Linares." said Krueger. "You've got a copy in your inbox, as well, Commander. Lindy said that this was all the information she had on the Black Velvet case, and she also said she was being pulled from it and would have no more for us going forward."

"Are they having problems over there, sir?" asked Mary.

"Yes." I replied, looking right at her. "Yes they are. They have some issues to sort out. But enough about that... David, did Lindy's information talk about George Aurus?"

"Yes sir." said Krueger. "Pretty good dossier on him. We're going to expand on it if we can."

"Good." I said. "I want you, all three of you, to get very, very familiar with George Aurus. Be able to answer any questions Captain Ross or I have about him. Do a good workup, and send Captain Ross and myself copies of it."

"Is he the guy, sir?" asked Cindy.

"He is definitely a person of interest." I said.

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

An hour later, the Mouseketeers were back. "Whaddya got?" I asked as they sat down, with Cindy on the sofa behind them.

"I'll rehash the background, sir." said Mary. "George Aurus is physically stunted in his growth. Records stating him to be four feet tall may be exaggerated and embellished. He was probably a student at Millwakee, the Camp for troubled teens, but we don't have good records on that. We do know that he traveled with the Gypsies that Dr. Eckhart was a part of; Captain Ross discreetly asked for us, and Dr. Eckhart said he vaguely remembered Aurus. Dr. Eckhart himself left the Gypsies right about the time Aurus might've been among them as a child."

Mary went on: "We have confirmed that Aurus was with a national Circus from IRS records obtained by the FBI. We also have IRS records of Aurus being paid as an assistant to Dr. Yarborough. Then Yarborough died, and Aurus essentially fell off the grid."

"However, we have found some things the FBI didn't find." said David Krueger. "Aurus managed to get himself hired by KCTY in the City, under the assumed name of 'George Powers'. He was a background researcher for stories for the reporters. I was tipped onto this by one of my political friends who had once been in a similar position for Fox Midtown."

"Apparently George was shopping around," continued Krueger, "trying to find reporters to report on abuse of sanitarium patients, testing of drugs on sanitarium patients, and such stuff. Several young 'cub' reporters tried to follow up on these stories. They were either warned off, outright told to stop pursuing, reassigned to other duties... and a couple of them 'came over all dead', as you like to say, Commander. One was a car accident, the other ruled a suicide, though her gunshot wound was to the back of her head."

"So Aurus couldn't get reporters to follow up on his stories." I said.

"That is apparently the case, sir." said Krueger. "And as your own reports to us said, he may have resorted to kidnapping and blackmail, or extortion, to either get people to follow up on these stories, or to confess their involvement in them. And along the way, the people he kidnaps are tortured, the women raped, and then all the victims killed off. I've also independently confirmed the FBI's research on their missing persons now being considered part of these crimes."

"Is that his motive, Commander?" asked Cindy. "Trying to get people to expose criminal activity?"

"That is looking likely." I said. "And more specifically... abuse of sanitarium patients. But somewhere along the way, he popped a screw loose in his head, and now he's killing people. And from his little gifts to us, as well as one of his aliases, I'm observing that he is obsessed with the concept of 'power'."

"Sounds like Les Craig." Cindy quipped acidly. I may have given her a stern glance in reply.

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

After the Mouseketeers left, Cindy and I discussed the case further as I looked at maps on my computer screen.

"Okay," I said, "most of the bodies found were west of the City, in the woods in the general vicinity of that sanitarium. Not very close to Millwakee, though. No bodies found on sanitarium grounds, but in the woods, in places accessible by mostly dirt roads."

"But you think that sanitarium is connected to Aurus, that he's using it as a base of operations?" Cindy asked.

"I was thinking that." I said. "I know there's a basement space, but I'll be damned if I know how it's accessed... if it is accessed at all. I was hoping to see some infrared, some heat signatures when we went by there... but nothing."

"If it's underground, you might not get anything, especially with binoculars." Cindy said. "That would likely take a satellite, a military-grade satellite."

"And guess what... the whole area is off limits to all satellites; none allowed to fly directly over. Guess why?"

"The Federal installation?" Cindy guessed. Correctly.

"Yep." I said.

"That road we took to the side of the side of the sanitarium..." Cindy said. "Does it go all the way around the property?"

I checked. "Yeah, sort of. The road ends at an east-west road that goes along the backside. That road extends several miles west, to State 141, and east, back towards the City, connecting to roads near the airport. That road is in bad condition, mostly dirt, and a two-tire dirt strip in some places."

"When would be the best time to go around the place again?" Cindy asked. "Preferrably in daylight."

"Probably at morning shift change." I replied. "You want to go back up there?"

"I think we need to." said Cindy. "Call it a vibe, but also thinking logically: where else can someone take people, torture them, kill them, use electricity in torturing them, dispose of the bodies without being seen? It's gotta be in the area. If not that sanitarium itself, then there has to be a place nearby. I think we need to scout out the place further."

"Good points." I said. "We'll see if we can sneak out, but it may be Sunday morning before we can get back up there..."

Part 8 - Power of the Press

12:30pm, Wednesday, February 22d. Chief Sean Moynahan of the TCPD and Lt. Molly Ross Evans of the Nextdoor County Police Force entered the dining room of the Lakeside Inn & Suites. This was considered to be one of the nicer places to have lunch (and dinner) in Nextdoor County, and the Hotel people had realized that making it not-too-expensive brought in a lot more business.

"Hello, ma'am, sir." said Becca Larrington, who was the sister of the late Ned's girlfriend Goth Girl Kathy, daughter of Nora Larrington, and whose cherry had been popped by the Iron Crowbar's iron-hard penile crowbar. "Would you like to sit on the deck outside, or near the windows for the view?"

"If you don't mind," said Molly, "we'd like to sit in the dark corner over there." She indicated the tables to her left, as far as possible away from the outside windows, and where they could and would be easily overlooked.

"Certainly." said Becca. She led the way to the table. Molly and the Chief sat where they could survey the entire restaurant room, and see people that had come in.

"Well, Chief," said Molly, "I appreciate you inviting me to lunch. We haven't had a good talk in I don't know how long."

"Yes, too true." said the Chief. "I'm glad you could join me for lunch. Soooo, how are things with yooooo?"

"Good." said Molly. "The boys are growing like weeds, starting to get into trouble. The job is going very well; we busted some trucks coming through from the City with drugs, then we busted a distributor who'd been supplying the area."

"Heh heh heh heh." said Moynahan. "Ms. Croyle told me once that you being here in this county made her job a lot easier. I believe Coldiron thinks the same thing."

"How is he doing? And Frank?" asked Molly. "I haven't talked to either of them in ages."

"Coldiron is doing fine." said Moynahan. "That little mothball situation the Iron Crowbar found shook Coldiron up a little bit, but otherwise he's been busting heads, and I'm hearing that people are afraid to bring drugs into his juris-dic-tion." Molly grinned at that.

"As to Frank Soltis," said Moynahan, "that's why I asked you to lunch, to talk about that. Frank is a good cop, and a very honest cop. But the Midtown Police job is a very big one, and I'm hearing some grapevine talk that Frank is struggling to root out the corruption there. His own people are the problem; he doesn't know who he can and cannot trust. Internal Affairs there is gutted; they were very efficiently and successfully penetrated by the perpetrators of corr-UP-tion there."

Molly nodded, feeling much more sober. "And Frank is an awfully young guy to have taken that position. Even Don wouldn't take the Town & County Police Chief job; said he wasn't ready for it."

"Ohhhh, the Iron Crowbar could've taken that job, and he would've done a wonderful job with it." said Moynahan. "But I understand his real reason for remaining at the Commander position: he has subordinates to do the Police work, he can solve crimes from where he is, and he can go all over the State solving crimes as well as running the State Legislaturrrrrre."

Molly burst out laughing in her unique way. "Yes sir, that's true. He's an amazing man."

"Yes, he is." said Moynahan. "I've spoken with him about the Midtown situation. He is going to give Frank as much help as he can, but only after he gets this Black Velvet killer."

Just then, he saw Molly go for her cellphone. She had it unlocked and was snapping pictures almost instantly. He turned and saw what had her attention: a lovely woman with dark red hair and a tall, slender man with light brown hair had come into the room and were at the front podium. Moynahan and Molly both raised their menus up to block their faces, and the couple was escorted to the room with windows that overlooked the lake.

"I'm sending this to my sister and my boys' father." said Molly.

"Yes, please doooo." said the Chief. Both of them had recognized the couple: they were KXTC Reporter Bettina Wurtzburg and FBI Special Agent in Charge Les Craig...

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

Cindy and I were sitting in my office, silently contemplating the photos each of us had received on our personal cellphones.

"Should I send this to Jack Muscone?" Cindy finally asked, breaking the long silence. "Or to Tanya, and let her tell him?"

"Mmmm, maybe not." I said. "At least not yet. We don't know what's going on between Les Craig and Bettina. Maybe he's just getting a great piece of ass."

"Like he did with Sandra Speer." said Cindy. "What, is he going after every woman you've fucked, getting sloppy seconds?" I could not resist chuckling at that.

"Time will tell." I replied. "But if you're thinking what I'm thinking... that Bettina's constant reporting of the nerve agent mothballs just might be connected to their lunch date... then that's something we need to think about."

"So why not tell Jack?" Cindy asked.

"We could, and the fireworks might be fun." I said. "But I have a very bad feeling about what's going on with all of that... with Jack's team, and the Deputy Director, and just the whole frickin' thing. We tell Jack what we know, and he tells his boss or confronts Craig, then it might actually work to Craig's advantage. No... I think we need to do some background checking, first. We need to establish for ourselves what Craig's role is in all this, if he's working with Superior Bloodlines, what power he has behind him in Washington, and all that."

"How are you going to do that? asked Cindy. I made a point to look at her funny.

"All this time you've worked with me, and you're asking silly questions like that?" I asked back.

"Never mind, never mind." Cindy said. "I think I'll go check and see what my Detectives are doing..."

"Tell you what." I said. "Let's go have a late lunch ourselves..."

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

Lunch was at Laura's favorite Soup & Sandwich place. The main rush of patrons was over, and we sat at a table overlooking the lake through the window. Along with me and Cindy were my wife Laura and my mother Phyllis.

"Yes," said Laura, "I can definitely check up on Les Craig in general, but unless he's been incredibly stupid with his finances, I doubt I'll be able to find very much."

"That's okay." I said. "If you find an anomaly, any anomaly, it'll give me a starting point for looking further."

"Unless we get stripped of our FBI Consultant positions, and they close off our computer accounts." Cindy said.

"Hasn't happened so far." I said. "But did you ever have the feeling that a door was left unlocked just to get you to walk into it and be trapped? So I'm going to not use that route, if at all possible."

"So what are you going to do, son?" asked my mother.

"I was going to ask for your help, Mom." I replied.

"Are you asking me to talk with Jack Muscone through Tanya?" Phyllis asked.

"No, Mom." I said. "I'm going to leave the FBI alone on this one. I was going to ask you to talk to your friend Elsie Gringer, who happens to be Bettina Wurtzburg's aunt. Maybe you can, in your most gossipy of ways, find out what's going on between her and Les Craig. If they're just having sex, then no harm, no foul. If there's information being shared, maybe you can get something for me."

"Possibly, son." said my mother. "But Elsie is no slouch. She'll probably see right through me."

"You fooled the greatest criminal mind of our time for months pretending to be the Widow Athena Jones." I said. "I have every confidence you can handle Elsie... as you frequently do."

"Why, son!" exclaimed my mother. "Suggesting I have ulterior motives for talking with Elsie!" At that point Cindy started laughing and could not stop.

"Also," I said, unperturbed, "If there is any way for you to do it, I need to know what is motivating Bettina to continue reporting on those mothballs we found. There is something going on with that, and lives may be at stake if I can't begin to understand it."

"I'll do what I can, son." said my mother. Cindy's ice blue eyes sparkled at that, and I knew the Widow Athena Jones (and especially Team Athena Jones) was still going strong, in spirit if not actual fact...

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

"I've been thinking about it," I said as Cindy and I sat in my office at 5:30pm, Wednesday, February 22d. "The Chief said we can go tomorrow morning to check out the sanitarium again, but we're going to need a couple of extra people. Any suggestions?"

"Teresa." Cindy said immediately.

"I don't think Chief Moynahan would appreciate it if his entire leadership was wiped out in one fell swoop." I replied. "Seriously, Teresa needs to be here and in charge while we're gone."

"How about Roy McGhillie? Or Hugh Hewitt?" Cindy asked. "Though... what are the jurisdictional issues?"

"Oh, I forgot to tell you." I said. "When I became SBI Reserve Inspector, I stopped counting against the number of SBI Reservists from one jurisdiction. So I can commission a replacement for me on a temporary basis, until the SBI Director and Governor approve a permanent selection."

"That's cool." said Cindy. "I could call Nextdoor County PD and see if they'd loan us Detective German."

"He'd be a good SBI Reserve choice, but I dunno about tomorrow's mission." I said. "We don't know his full measure yet."

"Why don't we take Hewitt for this one mission, give him an SBI Reserve badge 'without portfolio', i.e. no formal paperwork." suggested Cindy.

"We can do that, though I'll make a temporary appointment for him." I said. "Otherwise he'd be impersonating a State Agent. Can't have that."

"Why not?" asked Cindy. "Ferrell, Ikea, and Sharples impersonated State Agents for a long time." I laughed out loud at the joke.

"Okay," I said, "what about Norm Chow? You trust him enough to bring him on a mission like this? To have our backs?"

"Yes." Cindy said. "I asked Lindy to check up on him, too. She said the FBI had flagged him as one of the few trustworthy SBI Agents that they, the FBI, could work with. They've designated Ruble and Orosco that way, also."

"All right." I said. "You go tell Hewitt that we have a mission for him tomorrow, and he should bring armor. I'll get in touch with Chow."

Part 9 - Power of Darkness

Thursday, February 23d. The sun was just beginning to dawn over the eastern horizon as the Black Beauty turned off the main highway onto State 141. There were no police vehicles on the dash map. SBI Agent Chow had been impressed with the electronics in the Black Beauty, though of course we did not tell him everything that was in this rolling arsenal.

We stopped at Millwakee. I got out and picked the lock and opened the gate, and we rolled into the compound. There were no heat signatures, no new signs of recent habitation. Small wax seals I'd placed on the doors of many of the buildings had not been disturbed.

"No one has been here at all." I said as we got back in the car and headed out after locking the gate behind us. "Okay, on to the sanitarium."

"I'm taking Highway 141 further north, then taking the side road to the east." said Cindy as we drove. "If they're watching the main road, maybe we'll sneak up behind them."

"Still no police cars, no radio transmissions of any kind." I said as Cindy turned onto a road that was barely more than two dirt strips for tire tracks. The Black Beauty's tires and suspension easily handled the terrain.

"This road goes right along the back fence of the sanitarium, which is to your right." Cindy said. "We're coming up to it now." She stopped the car and I used binoculars to see if there was anything to see.

"No perimeter cameras. Okay, forward ho!" I said, using Cavalry terminology that would please Chief Moynahan.

As we drove along, the fence was very close to us on the right. Cindy said "It really drops off to the left here. Pretty tight gap."

As we got just past the halfway point of the property, I said "Stop the car." Cindy stopped, and I pointed to the left. "That is some strange looking foliage."

"It's camouflage netting, sir." said Agent Chow in his dispassionate voice. "I think it's set up to keep anyone up here from seeing that dirt road below."

We got out and looked. Sure enough, a barely visible, well-camouflaged road was coming from the north, perpendicular to the road we were on. "Looks like it is going right beneath us." I said. "And... right under the sanitarium."

"Don, I've got it on the map." Cindy said. "We'll have to go back, but the trail circles around from the road we're on."

"Let's do it." I said. Cindy drove forward the length of the sanitarium as we looked, seeing nothing of excitement. When the dropoff subsided a bit, she turned the car around. With the sun at our backs, I could more easily see inside the sanitarium fence.

"Yep, a few buildings on the back side here." I said. "They look like maintenance sheds, but why so many?"

We drove on, and Cindy found the turnoff to the road. We descended as we drove along it in a wide semicircle, first northerly, then easterly. As we began to turn towards the south, we could see what looked like a built up earthen wall that the other road went over.

"Stop here." I said. "Turn around, let's go stern-in." Cindy did so, and backed up along the trail until we were about 150 feet from the wall. We got out, looking to see if there were any hidden cameras.

"No cameras." I said, using the binoculars to detect heat as Cindy checked for electronic signatures in the car.

"No, but there are some wires across the road up there. Clear fishing wire." said Chow. "You can see the sunlight reflecting off them." I looked forward, and saw what Chow had seen.