Soap Opera Ch. 02

This story is part of an ongoing series. The chronological order of my stories is now listed in WifeWatchman's biography.

Feedback and constructive criticism is very much appreciated, and I encourage feedback for ideas.

This story contains graphic scenes, language and actions that might be extremely offensive to some people. These scenes, words and actions are used only for the literary purposes of this story. The author does not condone murder, racial language, violence, rape or violence against women, and any depictions of any of these in this story should not be construed as acceptance of the above.

Dedicated to Macdonald Carey, Frances Reid, and all our past and present friends of 'Days of Our Lives'... in good ol' Salem, USA...

Part 9 - Politics and Progress

"Like sands through the hourglass,


So too, are the Days of Our Lives..."


---Macdonald Carey, 'Days of Our Lives' intro.

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Fox Two News!" shouted the redheaded reporterette at 7:00am, Wednesday, May 9th, from in front of City Hall. "The results of yesterday's primaries are in!"

Bettina started: "Congressman Gerald A. Condor has won the Democratic nomination for the 1st U.S. Congressional District, while Mayor Larry Vaughan has won the Republican nod. Senator Katherine Woodburn is the Democrat nominee to the State Senate for the 1st State District, and she'll be running against relatively unknown Kirdy Stevens, a professional photographer and videographer, for the post. Della Harlow and Antonio Griswold are the Democrat and Republican nominees for Sheriff."

Bettina continued: "Susan Weston has won nomination as a Democrat for the seat held by Loran T. Michaels, and Sheila Sorrells has won the Democrat nomination for the old Thomas P. Cook seat, currently held by Ms. Weston. Weston faces no Republican opposition, while Sorrells will face Bob Porker in the General Election in November."

"The big race, however, was for the Mayor's position," said Bettina. "Town Assemblyman Eldrick X. Weaver easily won the Democrat nomination, while Daniel Allgood defeated Loran Michaels 52-48%, in what some experts called a surprise and an upset. Let's go to Amber Harris at the KXTC Fox Two Decision Desk. Amber!"

"Thank you, Bettina!" said Amber, a pretty, athletic blonde. "The race for the Republican nomination in the Mayor's race was not called until just before midnight last night. Sheriff Daniel Allgood's strong support in the northern suburbs and unincorporated parts of the County was barely enough to hold off the late surge of votes for Councilman Loran T. Michaels from the central and southern parts of Town. We have with us Karl Frazier of Public Policy Polling to break it down for us. Karl, what did we see last night?"

"Amber," said Karl Frazier, a middle aged man whose suit looked good but his shirt collar was beginning to wilt and his sparse hair was beginning to look frazzled, "Mr. Allgood did extremely well in the mostly white northern areas of the Town and the unincorporated County, while Michaels did well in the blue-collar central and minority-populated southern portions of Town. Most of the southern precincts voted in the Democrat primary, but those that did vote in the Republican primary swung heavily to Michaels."

"Thank you, Karl!" Amber said brightly. "We now have Dr. Romanov of the University's Institute for Political Policy with us. Dr. Romanov, what do these numbers mean for Daniel Allgood in the General Election?"

"It's not good, Amber. For him, anyway." said Romanov, who was more elderly than Frazier. "Allgood got away with a huge gaffe in not being present for Captain Thompson's promotion last week, but minority voters will definitely be remembering that in November. The Republican vote was badly split, showing that Allgood is not a strong, consensus-building candidate, and that will also hurt him going into the General Election."

"What about the Sheriff's race?" asked Amber Harris. "Now that the preliminaries are over, Della Harlow can really go after Chief Griswold. What's her path to victory?"

"Chief Griswold is popular with the County's voters." said Romanov. "Ms. Harlow will have to strongly associate Griswold and his policies to those of Daniel Allgood... and of course Commander Donald Troy, as he faces huge legal challenges going into the summer months..."

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

"Commander," Jerome Davis said to me as we listened to the Bettina Broadcast in MCD, "are you a good consensus builder?"

"Oh you bet." I said. "I tell you guys what I want, and I get immediate consensus." Laughter broke out at that. "Fortunately," I continued, "the consensus I want is for crimes to be solved and perps busted. And with all of you, that's easy to get."

Everyone seemed to be in relatively good spirits despite the long day before. Except for Joanne Warner. She seemed distracted.

"What is Loran Michaels going to do?" Teddy Parker wondered out loud. "He's not re-running for his Council seat, he lost the primary to Sheriff Allgood, and he's no longer Public Health Officer and really has no place to go back to there."

"I heard," said Theo Washington, "that he's going to endorse Della Harlow for Sheriff, and then he'll be named Police Commander when she becomes Sheriff." There were some laughs and some gasps at that, and all eyes went to the person currently holding the position of Police Commander.

"Hmmm." I said. "I think we're back to 'Police Commander consensus', here..."

"Don't forget the Cavalry Consensus." said Chief Moynahan as he came in from the back hallway door. "And speaking of that, I need the consensus of my Command Group in my office, if you Commanders don't mind."

As Cindy and I headed to the door, the Chief said "Okay, folks, I understand talking about the news of the day, but let's keep the politics to a minimum and do our jobs..."

"By the way..." I said to Joanne, drawing her back to the lure. "Detective Warner, the consensus is that you did a lot of good work yesterday, and we're going to be needing more of that today. Get ready to go to the Fairgrounds with us."

"Yes sir." said Joanne, her face brightening considerably.

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

Once in the Chief's office, sipping mugs of Jerome's Navy Coffee at the Chief's invitation, he said "What's going on with security for this freeking soap opera at the Fairgrounds? How many of our Officers are pulling duty over there?"

"Technically none," I said, "until the murder happened. They'd asked us for security before coming to Town, but Captain Croyle's invoice was a bit steep for their liking, as she hoped it would be. But we let it be known that off-duty Officers could moonlight and make some extra cash... and not on the TCPD's dime."

"And not fresh and alert for their regular shifts." said the Chief.

"Most of them are young and in good shape, sir." I said. "I think it'll be okay, as long as they don't have to face Commander Ross in the Police Boxing Matches this weekend."

"Yeah, they better be ready for that!" Cindy said with great alacrity.

"O-kay." said the Chief. "Well, last night a Sheriff's vehicle went down MLK Jr. Avenue. Someone began throwing rocks at the car, and we're talking about a small barrage. The Deputy was not hurt and the car largely undamaged, but he stopped, turned on his lightbar, and called for backup. Sheriff Department and TCPD vehicles converged on the scene, but didn't find much of anything. Any more on that?"

"No sir." I said. I'd read the duty logs and Police reports of the incident. "I emailed the Sheriff this morning that we can provide backup for the Deputies serving warrants if we have any more problems like that, but I'm hoping it was a one-off, maybe kids daring kids to throw rocks at the Sheriff's car."

"What's the alternative to that scenario?"

"Paid-for, ginned-up attempt to cause trouble." I said. "The politicians and big-money lobbyists love to get the so-called 'useful idiots' all ginned up and causing trouble. One day their calls for violence are going to get innocent people killed."

The Chief shook his head. "Why, oh why, couldn't the Sheriff just have come to the Police promotions ceremonies?"

"Yeah, and the green crowbar beatdown is still to come on that." I said, making Cindy chuckle as a green crowbar was waved in my general direction.

"What, he entered the Boxing Matches?" the Chief asked, as if stunned.

"Don't I wish." replied Cindy. "No, I'm sorry, I shouldn't say that. But I still don't understand it."

"Heh." said the Chief sourly. "You and me both. What about you, Commander?"

"I think I'm going to keep my mouth shut." I said. "Especially since I'm not allowed to beat the crap out this other Commander in the Boxing Matches." Yes, a green crowbar was definitely waved in my specific direction for that one...

"Anytime you want an exhibition match," Cindy offered, "just step into the ring."

"Don't you dare." countermanded the Chief, and he was not joking. At all.

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

As we waited for Priya's broadcast and the Angels meeting, Cindy said "So... you have some idea about why Sheriff Allgood was not at the Promotion Ceremonies?"

I got out my bug-killer and turned it on. It had occurred to me that while my office was being renovated, enterprising Internal Affairs techs might try to plant some new bugs to replace the wires I'd torn out. So far I'd found nothing, but I knew I needed to be overly cautious on this one.

"Yes, I do have an idea about it. No proof, no knowledge, but just a pure guess." I said. "Sheriff Allgood did not attend on purpose, and for political reasons." Yep, that got me some undivided attention from the Green Crowbar.

"And I'll compound it," I said, "by saying that if Allgood had not done what he did, he might have lost the primary."

"I'm thinking you might have lost your mind." said Cindy. "Not that I haven't been thinking that for years." A red crowbar was waved in her general direction.

"I think you are just loving it that you can say that to me and get away with it now." I said with a grin.

"Ah, the perks." Cindy replied with a smile. "Seriously, why do you think that?"

"Well," I said, relaxing in my 'command chair' as much as I could with the 'girdle' on under my shirt, "the Democrats, especially Harlow, had been running ads against Daniel relentlessly, and some pretty dirty smear attacks, at that. They were all but running Loran Michaels campaign for him; he didn't have to spend hardly anything in ads, though he should have, and targeting the northern suburbs."

"So everyone with more brains than a Betta fish knows that the minority areas are simply not going to vote for Daniel." I continued. "And I'm thinking that his campaign realized that him not going to the Police Ceremonies would be a risk, but would affect him negatively only in the areas that weren't going to vote for him, anyway. The lily-white northern suburbs heard the attacks on him by the Media for not going to the ceremonies, and they coalesced around him, giving him the primary win. If he'd gone to the Police ceremonies, those suburban whites might well not have voted for him."

"So you think the suburban whites are racist?" Cindy asked, looking a bit shocked.

"No." I said. "But I think there's a backlash, which will become more evident in the future. People are being tired of being told how they have to feel and think, they're tired of the attempts to force them to feel guilty of something they are not guilty of. Ergo, they responded to the Press attacks on Daniel... by voting for Daniel."

"Makes sense when you describe it that way." Cindy said. Then she peered at me. "Did you give him or his campaign that advice?" she asked. I made sure to look straight into her ice-blue peepers.

"No." I replied. "I did not advise that. Frankly, I would never have done that; it was too risky, and will come back to haunt him in the Fall. But I will say this... while I've never, ever, heard my mother say a single word that would lead me to believe she's a racist in any way... she's very smart and astute, smarter than I am for damn sure... and she is still very fond of her former daughter-in-law."

"Wow." Cindy said quietly. "That is cold and bold."

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

"This is Priya Ajmani, KSTD Five-Alive News in the Morning!" shouted the lovely Indian reporterette at 8:00am, Wednesday, May 9th. "We are following two major news stories for you! First is the death of the director of the daytime television series 'Days of Promise', Ken Moore. Fans of the show all over America are mourning his death, as he is credited with reviving the popularity of the show, and all of daytime television as well. Police are not releasing any information on the cause of death, and TCPD Captain Damien Thompson issued a press release saying that the investigation is ongoing."

Priya then went through the primary results, saving the Mayor race for last: "And current Sheriff Daniel Allgood narrowly defeated Council Member and former Public Health Officer Loran T. Michaels for the Republican nomination for Mayor. This was by far the closest race in the primaries. We have Dr. Adam S. Keller, Senior Fellow at the City University Rodham Foundation for Politics and Social Change with us. Dr. Keller, what does this mean for the Mayor's race."

Speaking calmly, Keller said "What this means is that the Town & County is still a very divided County with racist, white nationalists in the elitist northern areas that voted for Allgood, while workers and minorities voted heavily for Mr. Michaels."

Priya asked "Dr. Keller, did Sheriff Allgood not attending the Police Ceremonies for the promotion of Damien Thompson to Captain, the first black man ever to be promoted to that level in the TCPD, affect the outcome of this vote?"

"It very well could have, Priya." said Keller. "Allgood may have energized his base of elitist, racist whites, and that might have put him over the top. If he had done the right thing and gone to the Police ceremonies, much less participated in them, the racist whites might not have voted for him, and we'd have a Michaels-Weaver race now. As it is, I predict a crushing victory for Weaver in November, and the coattails might be such that Della Harlow has a chance to win the Sheriff's race..."

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

Cindy just looked sideways at me out of the corner of her eye as we listened to the broadcast. Teresa said "Amazing how that guy can just so calmly call Allgood voters racists like that. And Priya doesn't say a word about it."

"He knows that'll get him fawning from the Press, face-time on their television shows, and therefore money for his foundation." I said. "And the Press is in collusion with him and his ilk."

"I dunno, I think he believes every single word of what he said." Teresa replied.

"Not the part about Harlow and Griswold." I replied as I turned off the television set. "He's just blowing smoke on that. But you're right that he thinks Whites are automatically racists if they're not hardcore socialists like he is. Okay, Angels, what's going on in my Police Department?"

"The CSI teams worked like dogs last night," said Tanya, "and got a ton of records, paper and electronic, into our servers. I haven't had a chance to go through it all yet. I'm going to have one MCD team go through the stuff, and the other at the scene. Do you have any preference on who stays and who goes?"

"Yes." I said. "Send Warner and Washington to the site, and have Parker and Davis work from MCD. What about all the interviews? Anything else stick out?"

"No sir." said Tanya. "I got your email that you want to interview the intern Kayla."

"Sir," asked Teresa, "out of sheer curiosity, who do the CSI's belong to?"

"They are officially part of the Detectives Division." I replied. "And therefore under the tutelage of Captain Perlman, herself an excellent leader of CSIs. And that reminds me: Tanya, is Mark Walker going to work out as leader there?"

"He's doing all right." said Tanya. "But with J.R. and Christina gone, it's a bit unorganized. I'm debating whether or not to have teams, or just solidify the leadership and go from there."

"We'll have that conversation later." I said. "We've got a murder to solve right now..."

Part 10 - Right On Script

8:30am, Wednesday, May 9th. We descended upon the set of 'Days of Promise'. It was early; breakfast was not scheduled to be served until 9:00am. Seems the cast and crew was on California time, and they weren't exactly early birds even at their home studios there. Fine by me, that gave us time to do some stuff. I went to the TCPD tent.

"Okay," I said, "someone found some scripts?"

"Yes sir." said Mark Walker, who looked tired. "They're all in the servers." I began looking at the scripts on my laptop.

"Not a whole lot to see here." I said. "Buildup to the wedding, then the interloper, played by Danny, comes in and ruins it, then a lot of back and forth over that. Then..."

I started going through the scripts. "The focus begins changing, from Carolyn and Thomas to Carolyn and Danny. Brand new script, too; it was written yesterday morning." I went through the next couple of days worth of scripts.

"We also found some scripts hidden away, in the back of an office desk drawer." said Mark Walker. "These are stamped 'rejected'." I began looking at the 'rejected' scripts.

"I was told," I said as I looked at them, "that they often have to change scripts. Sometimes a person leaves in real life, or has a real-life family emergency to attend to. Sometimes they add a person, and will change several scripts to accommodate that change... hmmm... so this latest script that was rejected is Thomas and Carolyn arguing about the new guy that claimed to be her husband... then a scene with Thomas and Marlena... talking about Carolyn, and neither of them talking in very nice terms... sounds like real life, there."

"Think that's it?" asked Cindy, who was looking at scripts on her laptop as she sat next to me. "Maybe one of these scripts has something from real life in it, something somebody didn't want exposed? And that led to murder to keep the script from becoming what was put on air?"

"Could be." I said. "By the way, whose desk were these rejected scripts found in?"

"The intern, Kayla's." said Mark Walker.

"Okay, that does it." I said. "We have got to interview her. Commander Ross, would you call Captain Croyle on your cell phone and----"

"I'll handle it myself." said Cindy, getting up and leaving the tent.

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

Some moments later, Cindy brought Kayla to the TCPD tent. We had a videocamera set up to record the interview. Kayla was about Cindy's height but much more slender. She had dark brown hair, was pretty but not beautiful like the stars of 'Days of Promise', and young, in her early 20s. She was wearing a pullover shirt and khaki pants and no makeup, having been rousted out of bed by the Deputy Police Chief and given no chance to dress as she normally would.

"Have a seat, Kayla." I said. As Kayla sat down I said "Since you were the person that found Mr. Moore's body, I'm going to read you your rights." I did so from the card and asked if she understood. She began being flustered.

"Why... why are you reading me my rights?" she said, almost wailing. "What did I do wrong?"

"Ma'am," I said, "it's just a precaution, to protect both you and us in the event you're a witness to something... and you are, since you found the body."

"Do I need a lawyer?" Kayla wailed, now looking very frightened.

"It is your right to have one." I said. "And if there is any doubt in your mind, then you should ask for one---"