Reichenbach Ch. 03

"All right guys." he said. "Put something on the table, a starting point we can work with."

"Full immunity if her information leads to the arrest and convictions of higher level organized crime figures." said the U.S. Attorney.

"No more than death off the table if she confesses and cooperates fully." I said, countering the U.S. Attorney completely. "No immunity. At all. Ever."

"I can see you guys aren't together on this." said the attorney. "We have to have a level of agreement. And I don't accept your offer, Lieutenant Troy, it's not nearly enough." He was using my rank within the SBI, which was Lieutenant, and I could tell that was a deliberate game. But I was not playing little shit games like that.

"Then there's no deal at all at the State level. At all." I said. "Your client's problem is that there are two crimes, one on Federal lands, and one here in the City... which despite their desire for autonomy, is still in my State. And I've already had a call from the Governor himself, backing me up all the way. The Feds can't give her immunity if we don't agree to it; if they do, we'll fight that in Court, and we'll win."

"Why are you doing this?" the lawyer asked, his eyes boring into me. The U.S. Attorney was also staring at me with as much hatred as he could muster.

"Let's stop the bullshit." I said. "Susan Wexler cannot give the Feds what they really want. But she can, and will, give me what I want, or she's not going to last very long in any jail. She'll never get immunity. City I.A. is just beginning to look into her real drug dealing career, and God only knows how much they'll find. No way she's immunized from everything, no way at all. Ever."

"For God's sake!" gasped the U.S. Attorney. He flicked his card over the table to the lawyer. "Here's my card. We'll talk privately when this fucking asshole isn't around." With that, he got up and left the room.

"Well, Lieutenant," said the lawyer, trying to play the intellectual with me, "I'll just deal with him, the Feds will take precedence, they'll run roughshod over the State. The Tenth Amendment ain't worth shit anymore." He got up as if to go. "So you have a nice day crying about no immunity."

"I guess you didn't hear everything that I said." I intoned, keeping my voice low and severe to impart menace. "I'll say the important part again: your client is not going to last very long in any jail if you give her to the Feds. Maybe that's what you and Gresham & Mason's real clients want. So you decide what's in your client's best interests, Counselor..."

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

Thirty minutes later, Jack Muscone, Cindy and myself sat on one side of the table, along with an attorney from the City's District Attorney's office, a voluptuous woman with a mane of brown hair that was poorly highlighted with blonde streaks. On the other side of the table was Susan Wexler and her attorney.

"We can take it down to Murder-3," said the City A.D.A. "if Ms. Wexler cooperates fully, gives us everything she knows about the murders, including her associates, and then cooperates fully with City P.D.'s Internal Affairs. And that's going to mean going over years of cases, and giving up a lot of names of dirty associates there."

"She'd be dead in prison in an hour if she did that." said her attorney, trying my own gambit against the State's people. The State attorney looked at me. I just nodded.

The State attorney said "We can protect her. And after she cooperates fully, then one week from when we're finished we'll transfer her to custody of the Feds. They can incarcerate her out of the State, in solitary in a Supermax prison. She'll be bored, but she'll stay alive. If she ever returns to this State and is caught, she goes to non-protective-custody in State Prison, and no, I would not want to be her if she's put in there. But if she works with us we'll give her to the Feds, who seem to be much more willing to take it easy on her."

"I'll take that." Susan Wexler said. Her lawyer tried to get her to haggle for more, but she shook her head. "I'll take this." she said, then looked at me. "Commander, what do you want to know."

"Nicole Stanton. How, why, and for who." I replied.

"For Henry Wargrave." replied Susan. "He personally had me do it. He said he would have Cherie send Nicole home early on some pretext. Apparently she got one of the Burkes to send Nicole on away. I had driven up after them in a rented car. That rental was on Cherie's C.I. card that I gave her, which is why I had to make the card disappear, then take that item off when I gave them the fake data. If they didn't find it, great. If they did, they'd blame Rogan."

"So when Nicole came outside of the Burke cabin," I said, "you got her attention?"

"Yes." Wexler said. "Nicole was on my payroll, so she knew me. She was shocked when she saw me, but she let me into the car. I said my car was broken down further down the road. She took me down there, and I pulled her gun out of her purse and trained it on her. We got out, I cut her up, then drove off in my rental and back home."

"Makes sense, and fits the facts." I said. "Why did Wargrave want her dead?"

"I don't know." said Wexler. "Honestly, I don't know."

"Did Michael Burke have anything to do with her death?" I asked. "Maybe he was the reason behind Wargrave wanting you to kill Nicole?"

"If that's the case, I have no knowledge of it." said Susan. "But I'll tell you this, to give you a couple of names. Your district's U.S. Congressman, Gerald Condor, he has his fingers in a lot of pies. And your State Senator, Katherine Woodburn... her name began coming up all over the place. She and Henry Wargrave were tight, much more so than people realize. Look into them, and you might find more answers."

"Thank you for that." I said, noting the Gresham & Mason lawyer's face had acquired a pained look when Woodburn's name was mentioned. "Okay, what about Cherie?"

"As you surmised, she'd long since outlived her usefulness to me." Susan said. "She was exposed as a C.I., and no, it wasn't due to the Stanton murder. Someone found out anyway. I suspect it's someone in your Town, Commander, who relayed the information to criminals here."

I nodded as Wexler continued: "So, I told her to go to Room 509, and I'd come meet with her later... and for her to get some sleep if I didn't arrive on time. Sure enough, she went to bed. When I got there, I let myself in with my key. She was in bed and I told her to stay there; she was half-asleep as it was. Then I just took the gun, eased onto the bed behind her and shot her, then left and went back to Room 609. I'd had control of the Hotel security cameras on those floors for a long time; it was nothing to take them out."

"And maybe bribe the Hotel staff to make sure." I said.

"You seem to know a lot about it, Commander." said Wexler. "Was it you that set up that sting?"

"I just have one more question." I said. "The person that told Wargrave to eliminate Nicole, and the person who exposed Cherie... you know who it is, don't you? Condor? Woodburn?"

"No. They're small time, bit players. We're talking someone big, here." said Susan, her eyes locked with mine. "I know there's someone there, someone really big. Harold Malone called him the Shadow Man, because he stays in the shadows and has other people do his work. I also know the Shadow Man got pissed at Wargrave about something. That's when Cherie got outed; she was working for Wargrave a lot, and this bastard had her outed to hurt Wargrave."

As I pondered her words, Susan peered harder at me. "Oh. My. God. You know, don't you? You know who and what he is..."

I smiled briefly. I felt the lawyer peering hard at me, and I made sure to look hard right back at him. He understood, and I wanted him to understand.

I turned back to Susan and said "And my chances of keeping you alive would improve exponentially if you can give me something solid on him. Something I can use to convict the son of a bitch." I again looked hard at the lawyer. He was not peering hard at me now, nor even looking at me at all.

Susan did look at me. "I wish I could. But he's too smart for that. He leaves no traces. All I can tell you from years of rumors in the drug gangs is that he uses disguises very effectively. He's there one day, he's there the next day and looking like someone else, and you didn't notice either time, and then he's just gone. He just... blends in. You have no hope against him, Commander Troy, no hope. None."

"We'll see about that." I said. "Okay Jack, she's yours." With that, I got up, Cindy following. We went to make our goodbyes with the City Police.

"Great job, guys." Robin Ventura said, smiling brightly. "You have no idea of the hornet's nest you've created here."

"That was indeed a beautiful job," said Sapper Warren, "seeing it, solving it, and getting something on her. We'd never have been able to do that."

"Unfortunately, that's true." I said. "She was too high up in the City Police Force. I didn't say anything in meetings with you, because it would've gotten back to her, and she would've taken precautions. There's no way the City Police could make a case against one of their own. But now... maybe you guys can clean up some internal messes, but do keep your heads on swivels. It could get rough."

But nowhere near as rough as what was coming my way, I thought to myself. An east wind was blowing...

Part 10 - The Ride Home, Redux

It was getting late Saturday afternoon as we were driving back home.

"So, Crowbar 2," I said to Cindy, "what led you to thinking it was Susan?"

"The Stanton case." Cindy said. "It struck me about you saying that Nicole had to trust whoever she let into the car, and ditto that for Cherie. Who was the only person that both ladies trusted? There may be others, but Captain Wexler was the only one that both women trusted and were possibly C.I.s for. But you knew far more than me."

"True," I said, "and by putting that one link together, you'd have been able to start piecing together a lot more. So you knew enough to get the rest. I'm just the shortcut."

"When did you figure it out?" asked Cindy.

"Oh, she was on my suspect list from the time I went to investigate Nicole's death at Lake Amengi-Nunagen." I said. "As soon as it became clear to me that Cherie was Wexler's C.I. You're absolutely right, Cindy: it had to be someone Nicole trusted and someone Cherie trusted, and Susan Wexler was at the top of that list. It was my biggest tell, also. But there were also other suspects, including Wargrave and Michael Burke, and even Cherie herself in Nicole's murder."

"When the FBI got the DNA data back, but it was not in any criminal database." I said. "That showed me that the killer was not a criminal with a previous record where DNA was obtained. And they forgot to look in non-criminal databases or check local databases, where Susan's DNA might have shown up. I have had a very good conversation with Jack Muscone's boss about that, and you may expect changes within the FBI in that regard in the near future."

"As long as he doesn't hire you away from us permanently." said Cindy.

"No worries about that." I reassured my partner, then continued: "So when Cherie was killed, I was hoping that the City's CSI team would find Susan's DNA in the drains, and that it'd come up a match in a database, to give everyone the clue they needed. But that came up 'no joy', so I had to keep digging."

"I knew circumstantially that it was Susan Wexler." I further said. "But I also knew that the City Police is very political, and they have some bad, bad apples in there. So just telling Sapper and Ventura what I was thinking would just put them in danger of being murdered, too."

"I had the feeling that you were trying to lead the horses to water incrementally." Cindy said. "Having the FBI go in and find the bugs and cameras, and such stuff."

"Yep." I said. "And look who arrived three minutes after the FBI did. Susan Wexler. She was tipped off, and very quickly. That confirmed to me about the moles. Also, I constantly brought it up about the killer possibly being a woman. That was as overt a clue as I could give without actually saying 'Hey guys! it's Susan Wexler!'."

"True." Cindy said.

"But yes, I'd been ahead of the game." I said. "A while back, I asked Jack's boss to consider sending in a mole to watch Wexler, see if they could get something on her and maybe even others within the City Police. They sent Arthur Wilshire, who got into Susan's good graces by seducing her and fucking her brains out a few times." I tried not to smile at Cindy's 'TMI' look for that.

I continued: "Unfortunately, Wilshire couldn't get any evidence or intel before Cherie was murdered. But someone remembered Cherie's credit card, and I knew what Nicole's credit cards were because the killer left them at the scene... a small slip, there."

"And Susan kept Nicole's gun?" Cindy said. "How fucking stupid is that?"

"She always had an idea she could plant in on a perp at some time in the future, I think." I said. "Also, if it were found, she'd just say Nicole gave it to her for safekeeping, or some such. But you're right... in the overall, it was stupid. Susan just didn't expect to get caught."

"Yeah, to the point she actually called the Iron Crowbar into the case." Cindy said, grinning. "That's not a little slip, that's a King Kong banana peel, there."

I laughed. "True. And even worse calling in both of us. But you know, I think she did that for other reasons. She needed to know how much I knew about things. I think the idea was suggested to her... by someone else. And maybe not Wargrave, for whom she was loyally working."

"Loyally?" Cindy said, her voice biting in its sarcasm. "She gave up his name as fast as she could. Congressman Condor and Senator Woodburn, too."

"Yes, I noticed that also." I said idly. "As I told that corrupt U.S. Attorney, the white one: she gave up only what she wanted to. She's shielding someone else, or a group of someone elses. My sneaking suspicion is Superior Bloodlines. Just between you and me, Cindy, I think Nicole Stanton might've been peeking into them for the Feds, and that is actually what got her murdered. Cherie didn't really know about any of it; she was almost an innocent bystander in all this."

"Could be." said Cindy. "It's just too bad... well, it's too bad that Cherie couldn't have been saved, somehow."

"Yeah." I said. "Shigata ga nai, neh? That means something like 'what can one do?' in Japanese... I think.

"Whatever that means." Cindy said. As she looked out the window at the scenery, I was was thinking as I drove. Yes, it was too bad Cherie could not have been saved, but it also was a blessing in disguise. Only Cherie knew that someone had taken a vial of poison from her and flushed it, and was there when Senator Nathan Allen died.

Only Cherie could possibly have identified the woman that had taken that vial from her. That only potential witness, Cherie Ward, was now gone. No, I never would've gone out and killed Cherie, and she was likely doomed anyway... but like a rifle barrel melting in a furnace, evidence of an excursion into the Dark Side of the Force was now gone.

Part 11 - Distractions

"This is Amber Harris, KXTC Channel Two News!" said the lovely buxom blonde reporterette at 11:00pm Saturday night. "Channel Two News has learned that a shocking arrest has been made in the City! Captain Susan Wexler, a longtime veteran and legendary figure in the City Police Force, was arrested for two murders, and sources tell Channel Two News that Town & County Police Commander Donald Troy solved the murders and made the arrest in his capacity as an SBI Reservist!"

Henry R. Wargrave just stared at the television set as he watched. He was alone in the home at Reservoir Lake of his friend, University booster Tom Riordan. Tom Riordan was in his condo near the University in Town, and his wife Janet, who was now separated from Tom, was living in Hillside, the seat of Nextdoor County.

Another of his (Wargrave's) associates had fallen, Wargrave thought to himself. Captain Susan Wexler had been an integral part of his operations, his marked card deep within the City Police. And like Wargrave himself, Wexler had been betrayed. And now the Iron Crowbar has taken her down, Wargrave thought. They were falling like tenpins, like Ten Little Indians...

Wargrave remembered the rhyme, and the exchange of words with the Iron Crowbar. (Author's note: see 'Dark Side of the Force', Ch. 5, Part 24 to refresh your memories.). And now, there were only two little Indians left: himself, also about to fall, and the great Consultant of Crime who would be much less forgiving of the Iron Crowbar and the bitch the CIA had codenamed 'Scorpion'. That man would crush every wet bit of existence out of them both, leaving barely a couple of stains on the carpet...

Unless I kill her first, Wargrave thought to himself. Unless I kill her first...

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

"Thank you, Juanita." said Laura Fredricson in her office in the Psychology Building on Campus. "Now I understand you have just obtained employment with Jeanine Burke?"

"Yes, ma'am." said Juanita, the pretty Latina housemaid... well, actually a promising young agent of the CIA and working for Gayle Roberts and Laura.

"Okay, go to that. Don't go back to the Wargrave home; it will be too dangerous." Laura said. With that, Juanita made her good-byes and left.

Laura sat at her desk, thinking of the situation. So Henry Wargrave was about to come at her, was he? She smiled as she remembered how even her husband Don had been very afraid at his first confrontation with Wargrave, which had occurred right here in this office. And now Don was not only ready to see the emasculated, neutered Wargrave finished off, he was going up against a much, much bigger threat. Laura idly wondered exactly when Don had lost his fear of Wargrave.

At that moment, there was a knock on the side door, followed by her husband entering the room. As always, Laura's loins melted at the sight of him... tall, broad-shouldered, light-haired like she loved, and very confident and secure in himself. She'd snagged one hell of a man, she thought to herself.

"Hello, Beautiful." I said as I entered the office. "Ready to go home? It's past Bowser's suppertime."

Laura pretended to scowl as she said "That lucky dog gets more attention from you than I do."

"Oh, that's not true." I said, walking up to the desk. "You get me in bed all night."

"That's true." Laura said, flashing me that beautiful smile of hers. "I do have some things to tell you. Wargrave is possibly planning to move against us." She told me what she'd learned about Wargrave's desperate plans.

"I've got that handled." I said. "He'd better pay more attention to his own wife than trying to bother mine." I slid my hands around Laura's waist, and she slipped her arms around my neck.

"Oh, by the way," she said, "congratulations on catching Susan Wexler. The FBI is once again very, very impressed. Not only in the way you solved it, but the way you were able to actually get evidence on her. It's hard to get evidence on a dirty cop... as I guess you know from dealing with Sharples."

"Yes." I said. "I guess it takes a cop to catch a cop. And Sharples' time is coming. At least he's quietly and passionately working on that child trafficking case... for now."

"Well, that can wait." Laura said, "Let's gather the children from the back room and go home." She kissed my mouth warmly. "And I'm definitely going to give you a long hard night in bed. Here, take your gray viagra."

"Mmmm," I said, easing her back to the desk as I swallowed the little gray pill. "I sure don't need it when I look at you, baby. In fact, before we go home, I'm going to fuck you right here on your desk." My cock was as iron hard as my crowbar, and I wanted to fuck my wife right there and then.